SHC again orders removal of public transport stands

Transporters continue to operate despite repeated court orders

HYDERABAD:

The Sindh High Court has once again ordered removal of all unauthorised parking stands of the public transport vehicles including taxi cars, vans and buses from Hyderabad. However, this time the Regional Transport Authority has been directed to submit reports of action every month in the Hyderabad Circuit Bench.

The order, which emphasised on the enforcement of previous two orders of the same court dated November 14, 2016, January 13, 2023, and November 26, 2024, was given in a petition filed by advocate Ghulam Sarwar Qureshi. The petitioner, however, has sought removal of just one van stop in Latifabad, citing inconvenience, traffic congestion and security issues for the town's residents.

Qureshi apprised the court that the respondent transporter was granted a permit on October 27, 2022, to operate a booking office for Fahad Transport Services. He was neither allowed to lift passengers from that spot nor to park the vehicles, both of which he has allegedly been doing for all those years.

During the hearings, the Secretary RTA Saleem Memon acknowledged before the court that all the permits for the public transport stands were cancelled on the SHC's multiple orders given since 2016. He claimed that after every court order the RTA sought help from the district and the traffic police for removal of the stands but to no avail.

A DSP of the traffic police, meanwhile, blamed the RTA arguing that they have no jurisdiction over the public transport stops. The SSP Hyderabad's lawyer also held the RTA and the traffic police responsible for all the illegal transport stands, which have been operating with impunity in Hyderabad -- a city of more than 2.5 million people where only one authorised parking stand exists, named Badin stop. However, illegal parking stops abound in the city for inter and intra city transport.

The bench pointed out that the January, 2023, and November, 2024, orders categorically directed the local authorities to cancel all permits under whose garb illegal stands are functioning in the district. The judges said the SHC had also ordered in January this year that all unlawful transport stands should be packed up from urban areas of Hyderabad.

"In the light of these judicial pronouncements and the statutory framework, it is clear that any continued operation of a transport 'adda' within city limits is without lawful authority," the order underlined.