Transporters’ strike: Life in Muzaffarabad comes to a standstill

AJK govt has banned use of old vehicles citing safety concerns.

MUZAFFARABAD:

Life in the capital of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) was paralysed as more than 300 public transport vehicles were off the road on Wednesday due to a strike called by the AJK Transporters’ Association (AJKTA) against government’s ban on old vehicles.

Passengers in Muzaffarabad were wandering from pillar-to-post looking to hitch a ride to reach their destinations. Attendance in schools, banks and government offices was very low as most people the area rely on public transport.



“We don’t know why there was no public transport. We were forced to reach our school by foot,” Maheen Raza, an eighth-grader at a private school told The Express Tribune.

Another furious resident, Chaudhry Majeed, said he had to visit an ailing relative at a hospital in Rawalpindi but could not do so as private cars charge ten times more for the same trip.

AJKTA had given a strike call against government orders to ban old vehicles citing safety concerns. “So what if my vehicle is an old model. If I am adhering to the safety rules, why is the transport minister bent on making me jobless?” said Rizwan Qureshi, a public transport operator.



“The strike was our last option to send our message across to the government,” said AJKTA President Abbas Qadri, adding that the AJK government is working against the interests of public transporters.

An AJK transport ministry spokesperson said the government wants to provide safe and comfortable transport to the people, whereas transporters just want to earn profits at the price of passengers’ safety, which the government cannot allow.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19^th, 2013.