All Pakistan Auto Rickshaw Manufacturers Association (APARMA) has demanded of President Pervez Musharraf to intervene and ask the Punjab government to withdraw its decision regarding ban on manufacturing of two-stroke auto rickshaws in the province. Addressing a news conference at Lahore Press Club on Monday, Association's President Haji Abdul Ghafoor, General Secretary Dawood Ibrahim and Press Secretary Farooq Ahmed Bhatti said that the decision would render jobless around 2 million people associated directly or indirectly with this industry, including drivers, mechanics and vendors.
They said the Punjab government had imposed ban two stroke auto rickshaws on the pretext that these were spreading smoke and noise pollution. As a matter of fact, they said substandard engine oil that was being sold everywhere in the provincial capital and other cities was the cause of smoke pollution.
As far as noise was concerned it was due to substandard and low quality silencers, they added. They claimed that silences fitted in these vehicles originally do not make much noise.
They further said that the Punjab government had prohibited manufacturing of two-stroke rickshaws, as it wanted to import these three wheelers from India. Some time back, the Punjab Transport Minister and Secretary had visited India and met with the manufactures of Bajjaj rickshaw and afterward a team of the company came to Pakistan in December 2004. But they showed interest in export of their vehicles and refused to transfer of four-stroke technology to Pakistan.
Moreover, they said with the exception of Mumbai and New Delhi, there was no ban on use of two-stroke rickshaws in India. They said that the ratio of two and four-stroke rickshaw in India was 20:80.