Fulfil your promises: Goods transporters’ strike enters sixth day

Protesters threaten to cause a complete gridlock in Karachi after Muharram 10.

KARACHI: The strike by the United Goods Transporters Alliance (UGTA), the main body of goods transporters in the country, has entered into the sixth day against the government due to its failure to meet their demands.

Goods transporters assured to call off their strike after meeting with Governor Sindh Dr Ishrat Ul Ebad Khan at Governor House.

— Dr Ishrat Ul Ebad (@drishratulebad) November 11, 2013

The UGTA is demanding the reversal of the decision to increase income tax, a decrease in traffic fines, action against the frequent incidents of extortion and kidnappings where drivers and others are beaten up, reopening of the Mai Kolachi Road for heavy traffic, reinstatement of designated parking areas that have been sold to private parties and compensation for the 966 vehicle that were torched after Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.

Drivers, cleaners and truck owners staged a demonstration in the Manghopir and Port Qasim areas, affecting shipment activities at the city ports. UGTA press secretary Fazal Manan Jadoon informed The Express Tribune that a police party of SITE B police station opened fire on the rally in the Manghopir area. Jadoon said that the police physically assaulted the participants of the rally, snatched their cash and phones and arrested them.



Jadoon said that the strike will continue till their demands are met, adding that after Muharram 10, they will go on a country-wide strike. He said that there will be a complete gridlock in Karachi. “We will park our vehicles outside the offices of bureaucrats,” he warned. A delegation of the government officials had come to talk about the ongoing strike but they left after giving mere assurance about the demands, said Jadoon.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12^th,2013.