KARACHI, Aug 25: Sindh Ombudsman has directed the authorities concerned to impound buses and minibuses violating the traffic rules and not honouring bus stops.

Ombudsman Justice Haziqul Khairi (Rtd) told Dawn on Wednesday that he had taken suo motu notice of the traffic rules violation, initially, in Saddar where remained a major traffic chaos. After the situation had improved in this area, the action would be extended to other places in a bid to remove traffic congestion being created by the commercial vehicles, he added.

In a meeting held in the recent past, the Ombudsman had directed the police and Saddar Town Nazim to take stern action against the drivers of commercial vehicles who violated the law and seize their vehicles under Section 115 of the Motor Vehicle Ordinance 1965.

He had called a meeting on Aug 17, at his office which had been attended by City Nazim Naimatullah Khan, DIG Traffic Saud Ahmed, Saddar Town Nazim Farooq Faria, Transport EDO Dr Tahir Soomro and other officials.

In the meeting, the EDO had apprised the Ombudsman that over 200 minibuses without any permit had been operating daily in the Saddar area, and the drivers used to stop their vehicles at places of their choice, except the bus stops.

After the meeting, all the officials had visited Saddar, inspected the notified bus stops and found that many bus stops had been encroached upon.

The Ombudsman had expressed his concern over the violation of traffic laws by the buses and minibuses as dozens of minibuses checked had been found without licence/permit.

Earlier, in January 2002, Mr Khairi had taken an immediate notice about the non-existence of bus stops in many areas of Saddar, which caused traffic congestion in the area.

The then transport EDO had apprised him of the situation arising out of traffic congestion in Saddar.

Officials of the Cantonment Board and Saddar administration had told the Ombudsman that sign boards indicating the bus stops, which had been installed by the defunct KMC and Cantonment Board, had disappeared.

The Ombudsman had directed the authorities concerned to install the sign boards again, and thus around 24 boards were installed at different bus stops in Saddar.