PESHAWAR, Sept 1: The All-Pakistan Goods Transport Association (APGTA) has threatened to hold demonstrations and park their vehicles in front of governor’s houses in the four provincial capitals if their demands are not met by September 15.

Accusing the motorway and highway police of corrupt practices, APGTA provincial president Liaquat Ali Khan told a news conference on Thursday that they would launch a countrywide strike for the acceptance of their demands.

He said the National Highway Authority (NHA) and Motorway Police were troubling transporters in various illegal ways, particularly weight machine schedule.

“The NHA is earning millions of rupees every day from toll plazas, but instead of providing facilities to transporters, they are teasing them,” he complained.

The NHA had established 12 such plazas on the highway between Peshawar and Lahore.

“About 60 to 70 thousand vehicles pass through each of these plazas every day. Calculated at the rate of Rs50 per vehicle, each plaza earns Rs3.5 million a day. Thus the income from all toll plazas exceeds Rs400 million per day which means trillions of rupees a year,” he claimed.

Mr Khan said according to the new schedule, load at different vehicles like six-wheeler, 10-wheeler and 22-wheeler had been fixed at the lowest. He demanded of the government to revise the new weight schedule in consultation with transporters.

He said the NHA was holding transporters responsible for deterioration of the road. “This is a baseless allegation. It is, in fact, the incapable engineers and corrupt contractors who are responsible for deterioration of road,” he said. He said due to the use of substandard material, the newly-repaired Mardan-Peshawar road started crumbling just after two months.