ABBOTABAD:
Members of the Taxi Drivers Union here staged a protest over banning a taxi stand at Missile Chowk on Wednesday.
The Cantonment Board authorities have asked the drivers to relocate the taxi stand from the current location. The taxi stand has been in use for the last many years.
The protesters chanted slogans against Cantonment Board authorities, accusing them of violating their own agreement.
Speaking on the occasion, the Taxi Drivers Union President Taj Muhammad claimed that the Cantonment Board had through a letter written to a terminal contracor Tahil Ali, allowed the taxis to operate from the terminal till June 2013 and a fee of Rs10 for Suzuki pickup and Rs20 for a car on daily basis.
He said that the drivers have been regularly paying the levy but the Cantonment Board authorities have arbitrarily stopped the drivers from using the space due to which they were likely to face economic problems.
He threatened that the drivers would continue to protest and commit self-immolation by blocking Karakoram Highway if the authorities tried to forcibly shift the terminal.
Meanwhile, an official source said that the decision of banning the taxi terminal was taken in the larger interest of general public as the stand was causing hindrance to the flow of traffic and exposing the pedestrians to difficulties.
Shehzad, Chanzeb Khan, Javed, Imran were prominent among those who spoke to the protesters.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 27th, 2012.
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