HYDERABAD, July 3: The All Sindh Bus and Minibus Owners Association, Hyderabad, has threatened to stop plying passenger buses to the interior of Sindh unless the district taluka nazim (rural) suspends Rs20 per vehicle parking tax.

Speaking at a news conference at the Hyderabad Press Club here on Monday, Shakeel Ahmed Khanzada of the Coaster Owners Association, Haji Saeed Khanzada of the Deluxe Bus Owners Association and Mohammad Yaseen of the All Sindh Bus/Minibus Owners Association Hyderabad said that due to illegal and arbitrary decisions of the local government administration, problems of transporters and workers had increased manifold.

On the one hand police excesses against transporters had increased and on the other local elected representatives and nazims through their illegal decisions had aggravated the situation, they said.

They said the taluka nazim of Hyderabad rural had started recovering Rs20 per vehicle at Tandojam from the vehicles plying on the Hyderabad-Mirpurkhas route. Forced recovery in the name of parking tax was absolutely illegal, they said and termed it extortion.

They argued that parking tax was always charged by the municipal administration at the bus terminus. Main roads were the property of the national highway department, but cantonment boards and municipal administrations were also charging cash on the pretext of parking tax.

They said that on the protest of transporters, the four talukas of Hyderabad had to cancel their contract for the recovery of parking tax.

The transporters said they had met the nazim; he not only had refused to withdraw it, but also misbehaved with them.

They appealed to the president and prime minister, Sindh Governor and chief minister and minister for local government to stop the recovery of the illegal parking tax.

They threatened that if their demand was not met by July 5, they would withdraw their vehicles from roads.

Earlier, a large number of transporters and workers staged a demonstration in front of the press club against the parking tax.

FISHING Licences: The Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF), Sanghar chapter, has appealed to President Gen Pervez Musharraf and the Sindh government to replace contracts with licences for catching fish and protect fishermen from the excesses of Chotiari Dam contractors whose contracts expired on June 30.

The PFF district president, Pir Bux Mallah, Rasool Bux, Mohammad Ramzan and Ghulam Mustafa told a news conference at Hyderabad press club on Sunday that the contract for Chotiari Dam ended on June 30 but the contractors had refused to leave the dam.

The contractors who were harassing and threatening poor fishermen with dire consequences considered the dam, one of six major sweet water resources, as their personal fish farm, they complained.

They said that due to forum’s struggle, the fisheries department had so far failed to auction 1,260 sweet water lakes and ponds in Sindh.