KARACHI, Nov 6: Transport operators are reluctant to keep their vehicles on roads during the strike by the religious parties on Nov 9.

One of the two major transport bodies in the city has decided to keep their vehicles operating on Friday but the other group has not yet decided whether or not they would operate.

Irshad Bokhari, chief of Karachi Transport Ittehad, said that he led the delegation of his organization and met the provincial police chief Syed Kamal Shah and city Nazim Naimatullah Khan separately.

He said the IG Sindh had assured the transport operators of providing adequate security on Friday; following his assurance, he went to see the city Nazim where the security measures were also reviewed and he asked the transport operators to keep their vehicles on roads on Friday.

Mr Bokhari said the KTF had decided not to join the strike and operate the public transport in the interest of the people. But, he clarified, he could not force every member of his organization to operate the buses.

A delegation of the Karachi Transport Federation, led by its chief Saleem Khan Bangash, also met the provincial police chief where they were assured of security.

“We met him but we have not assured him that we will keep the transport on road on Friday. We have convened a meeting on Wednesday to decide whether we should take our transport on roads or not”, he said.

He deplored that the government had not compensated those whose buses were burnt during the past strikes and in these circumstances it was difficult to operate the buses in an uncertain atmosphere.

The sources close to the transporters said that the majority of the transport business was in the hand of those affiliated with different religious parties. They would not accept the government appeal.

They said if the transport organizations decided not to join the strike, they would not be able to convince their members on this issue.

Meanwhile, IGP Sindh, Syed Kamal Shah, said that anybody found involved in disturbing peace and creating law and order situation on Nov 9 would be severely dealt with.