PESHAWAR, March 1: A transporters group on Wednesday rejected the strike call given by opposition parties and called upon the provincial government and law-enforcement agencies to provide them security on the day of the strike.
The call for strike on March 3 has been given by the MMA, ARD and Imran Khan-led Tehrik-i-Insaf.
Addressing a press conference here, Haji Ahsanullah, president of the All Pakistan United Transport Owners Association, said that they were true Muslims and condemned the publishing of blasphemous cartoons in European countries. However, he said that they supported peaceful protests and would not play to the tune of the politically-motivated campaign of Qazi Hussain Ahmad.
He announced dissociating himself from the scheduled general strike, saying that their vehicles would continue plying not only on provincial but also on inter-provincial routes.
He said that providing security to public and private properties was the duty of the provincial government and police. He demanded of both to provide them security on the prescribed day.
Flanked by the office bearers of different transport associations, Haji Ahsanullah, who is an active activist of the PML-Q, held both the provincial government and police responsible for the incidents of damage and arson on the traders’ announced strike of Feb 15.
He alleged that the provincial government and police now in a bid to hide their failure had registered cases against innocent transporters.
He said that the religio-political alliance had miserably failed in delivering to their constituents and after failure in their agitation campaign against the federal government, they were misusing people’s sentiments in the name of protesting against the publication of blasphemous caricatures.
Haji Ahsanullah asked the leadership of the MMA to quit both the NWFP and Balochistan governments if they were really interested in the protest against the blasphemous cartoons, saying that enjoying the perks and privileges of the government and carrying protest demonstrations were two different things.
The leader of the transport community demanded of the provincial government and police to ensure security for transporters on March 3 and withdrawal of anti-terrorism cases registered against the transporters. Otherwise, he said transporters would launch a province-wide protest against the provincial government.
