Ultimatum: Wanting security, truckers warn of going off the roads
Khan warned that if the demands were not addressed within 72 hours, the truckers will go on a strike.
KARACHI:
The city’s largest carriers of goods have given 72 hours to the government to ensure security of their trucks and drivers or they will go on strike for an indefinite period.
“How can we continue business if our drivers are kidnapped or brutally tortured and our vehicles are looted?” asked Khalid Khan, the president of Karachi Goods Carriers Association (KGCA), while speaking at a press conference on Saturday.
Every day, more than 10,000 loaded trucks of the association enter the city and around the same number leave for different cities of the country and Afghanistan as well. In this week alone, seven trucks of the association have gone missing after they were snatched by bandits in Sindh.
“Earlier, the robbers used to leave the trucks at some abandoned place but not now,” said Khalid Khan. “The authorities are doing nothing to counter the menace.”
Only the multinational companies insure their containers and the others claim the damages from the truckers. “We are not even safe at the truck stands and are looted at gunpoint every other day,” he lamented.
The KGCA president also criticised the police for using their trucks and containers to block roads leading to sensitive installations. “The police force our drivers to park the trucks as roadblocks and sometimes the trucks are torched,” he said. “The shipping firms claim the demurrage of the containers from us or they deduct it from the freight charges.”
Many containers and trucks have been torched during riots but they have never been compensated by the government, Khan added.
Along with the demands for the security of their trucks and drivers, the association also called on the government to maintain fuel prices for at least three months.
Khan warned that if the demands were not addressed within 72 hours, the truckers will go on a strike and will block services across the country for an indefinite period.
At the press briefing, the KGCA general secretary, Mohammad Shoaib Khan, and the senior vice president of the Karachi Port Trust’s Goods Transporters Association, Hussain Soomro, were also present. Later, the truckers also held a demonstration outside the Karachi Press Club and shouted slogans against the government.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 1st, 2012.
The city’s largest carriers of goods have given 72 hours to the government to ensure security of their trucks and drivers or they will go on strike for an indefinite period.
“How can we continue business if our drivers are kidnapped or brutally tortured and our vehicles are looted?” asked Khalid Khan, the president of Karachi Goods Carriers Association (KGCA), while speaking at a press conference on Saturday.
Every day, more than 10,000 loaded trucks of the association enter the city and around the same number leave for different cities of the country and Afghanistan as well. In this week alone, seven trucks of the association have gone missing after they were snatched by bandits in Sindh.
“Earlier, the robbers used to leave the trucks at some abandoned place but not now,” said Khalid Khan. “The authorities are doing nothing to counter the menace.”
Only the multinational companies insure their containers and the others claim the damages from the truckers. “We are not even safe at the truck stands and are looted at gunpoint every other day,” he lamented.
The KGCA president also criticised the police for using their trucks and containers to block roads leading to sensitive installations. “The police force our drivers to park the trucks as roadblocks and sometimes the trucks are torched,” he said. “The shipping firms claim the demurrage of the containers from us or they deduct it from the freight charges.”
Many containers and trucks have been torched during riots but they have never been compensated by the government, Khan added.
Along with the demands for the security of their trucks and drivers, the association also called on the government to maintain fuel prices for at least three months.
Khan warned that if the demands were not addressed within 72 hours, the truckers will go on a strike and will block services across the country for an indefinite period.
At the press briefing, the KGCA general secretary, Mohammad Shoaib Khan, and the senior vice president of the Karachi Port Trust’s Goods Transporters Association, Hussain Soomro, were also present. Later, the truckers also held a demonstration outside the Karachi Press Club and shouted slogans against the government.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 1st, 2012.