The National Transport Ittehad (NTI), Karachi, on Monday endorsed the wheel-jam strike call of the Pakhtoon Action Committee (Loya Jirga) on June 30.
NTI leaders Saleem Khan Bangash, Raja Muhammad Rafiq, Alhaj Malik Ahmed Khan, Taj Khan Bangash and others, in their joint statement, said they fully backed the strike call. All transport, including buses, minibuses, rickshaws, taxis, coaches, trucks, and inter-city buses, would be kept off the road on Friday (June 30), they added.
They said that after the historic and peaceful rally of June 2, the Sindh government would have given serious consideration to the problems faced by transporters, but instead it gave wrong signal by hinting at banning rickshaws and public transport vehicles of models prior to 1975.
They said the rate of diesel had been raised by Rs 11 per litre, but no corresponding raise in fare was allowed. They said that other lingering problems of the transporter community were yet to be solved.