The news of Sindh Government about to ban Uber and Careem made headlines a couple of days ago. However, the consumers of these services as well as the people earning from it were not happy with the government’s decision. This service is an advance technology using mobile that implement by private sector in Pakistan.
Sindh Assembly, Govt in a bid to clear the doubts about the future of these companies in Sindh, responded strongly by saying that it had no intention of banning these services in Sindh. However, Sindh Transport Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah also said that it was government’s responsibility to ensure that all the relevant transport laws and regulations were implemented.
Commercial Use of Vehicles and Taxation
The minister said that it was illegal to use private vehicles for commercial purposes. And these services, whether using commercial or non-commercial vehicles for providing the cab-hailing services needed to pay the applicable taxes. He also said that the government could take action against them if they failed to comply as per the regulations of the Motor Vehicle Act 1965.
Government’s Awareness of Transport Problems
Many opinions presented against the Government of Sindh’s decision of potentially banning this service had argued that authorities were not aware of the transport problems of the public. The transport minister said that this notion was not right and the government knew the daily transport problems faced by the public.
He also gave reference of Punjab Government or “Takht-i-Lahore’ in his own words, saying they did not follow what that provincial government had done.
“We don’t want to ban them as we feel that until the government arranges a better transport service for the citizens, it has no right to withdraw the facility provided by.”
The minister said that the reason the Sindh Government was ignoring the presence of black and yellow taxi was also because it did not want to inconvenience the people.
The government, as per the minister, was also working on a bill to create a framework for “rent-a-car” authority for regulating these services and he hoped that the draft would soon become ready.
The governments of Pakistan’s Punjab and Sindh government did not take any notice of the old commercial vehicles on the road. Law should be implemented across the board for all types of vehicles to make commuting safer for the passengers.
