MANSEHRA: The business community on Sunday warned of street agitation if the recently introduced freight management system was not withdrawn without any further delay.
“The mining industry has adversely been affected by the new system introduced by the federal government. We will stage a protest if the freight rates are not reversed to their previous position,” Malik Mohammad Zaheer, the general secretary of the Mining Association, told reporters here.
He said that the federal government had fixed weight limits on all national highways and motorways throughout the country and traders as well as the mining industry were adversely affected by it.
Malik Zaheer said that a 22-wheeler truck (lorry), which could transport 60 tonnes of weight, was limited only to 37 tonnes and 12-wheelers to 27 tonnes, etc.“We have to pay almost double fares on transportation of granite and other minerals to markets in Punjab and rest of the country after the imposition of the new system,” he added. Malik Zaheer said that the business community and miners had recently met with the transport secretary in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to raise the issue but to no avail.