The City Council passed a resolution to impose immediate ban on charged parking and cancellation of all parking contracts in the city on Saturday.
Debating on the issue, the city council members attributed the widespread and unruly charged parking for frequent traffic jams in the city and observed that the concept of charged parking was aimed at providing relief to the citizens rather than to add their miseries.
They pointed out that improper and mismanaged charged parking was a major obstacle in the smooth flow of traffic in the city.
Senior presiding officer Muslim Pervez further suspected the transparency of the parking contracts awarded this year and disclosed that all these contracts were awarded without any formal agreement.
In this perspective, he along with other members demanded immediate cancellation of all such contracts and recovery of the amount paid to the charged parking department for these contracts.
They also proposed the constitution of an inquiry committee of the house vested with the power to take necessary legal action against corrupt officials of the department.
They further complained that instead of charging at the CDGK prescribed rates, these private contractors were fleecing the people.
In reply, convener of the house Tariq Hassan observed that charged parking should be banned immediately with alternate proper parking arrangements in the city.
The other important issue raised on the floor was the recent raid by law-enforcement agencies on a local cinema.
The council members strongly criticised the event and denounced the harsh action of the law-enforcement agencies, declaring it as gross violation of human rights.
Specially, some lady councillors including Shamim Mumtaz, Rana Advocate and Mangla Sharma protested against the maltreatment and highhandedness meted out to women arrested in the raid by law-enforcement agencies.
The session was presided over by Naib Nazim Tariq Hassan while those who also spoke on the occasion included Saeed Ghani, Siddique Rathore, Mahfoozul Nabi, Abdul Razzak, Najmi Alam and others.