‘Unfit’ cars: Taxi drivers protest ban on airport entry

RAWALPINDI:

Hundreds of taxi drivers parked their cars outside Benazir Bhutto International Airport on Thursday in protest against the administration for denying them entry into the facility.

The protest also caused a traffic jam on Airport Road. The protesters demanded that the administration withdraw the ban on entry as according to them, they were fulfilling the administration’s demand of maintaining the fitness of their cars.

“On Wednesday morning, they forced us to take our cars out of the airport without any reason,” said taxi driver, Ajmal Khan, a resident of Pirwadhai.

Sajid Hassan, another taxi driver, said that the airport administration had asked them to produce fitness certificates, which they did. “Now they have set another condition that cars older than 10 years should not be allowed to enter the airport, which is unjust,” he said.

The taxi drivers said that the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi bench has adjudicated in their favour when the airport administration did not allow them to enter the airport. The taxi drivers alleged that the airport administration has declared their taxis a ‘security risk’.

“If we are not allowed inside due to security reasons, then they also should not allow old private vehicles inside the airport,” said taxi driver Hafiz Gul, adding that the airport authorities should not expect the working class to buy new cars.  He said that most of the cabs have been manufactured before 2000 and “if they demand that we buy new ones, it would be impossible for us”.

Some of taxi drivers said they were not owner of the cabs. “We hardly earn Rs2,000 per day and we pay half to the owners,” said Naeem.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2014.