Mayor expresses concern over illegal parking fees

Waseem Akhtar urges citizens not to pay more than the rates fixed by Karachi Metropolitan Corporation

KARACHI: Karachi Mayor Waseem Akhtar has reportedly expressed concern over the growing menace of illegal charged parking cropping up all over the city.

In a meeting, earlier this month, attended by Metropolitan Commissioner Dr Saifur Rehman, Coordination Senior Director Masood Alam, Charged Parking Director Abdul Khaliq Baloch and other officials, the mayor raised the issue of overcharging by parking contractors.

The mayor said that the rate of charged parking for cars and motorcycles is Rs20 and Rs5, respectively. He urged citizens not to pay more than the rates fixed by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation.

The meeting was informed that the parking fee was being charged at more than 200 sites in the city, in which 31 places were run by the KMC, only four of which were closed. The ‘mafia’, said the mayor, was involved in other sites run by the DMCs, union councils, and cantonment boards.

The meeting was told that according to the Sindh Local Government Act, 2013, Schedule 5 Part 1 Item 9, the authority to receive parking fees lies with the KMC only and any other civic agency that wishes to charge the fees must take permission from the KMC.

The mayor said that neither the KDA nor any other civic agency had taken permission from the KMC, so all their parking sites were illegal.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 19^th, 2019.