May 9 protests: Karachiites who lost motorbikes to be compensated

KARACHI: The Sindh government will compensate the commuters belonging to the lower- and middle-income groups whose motorbikes were torched by arsonists on May 9 during the violent incidents in Karachi. This was announced by Information and Transport Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon while speaking at a press conference on Thursday.

He lamented that the motorcyclists who had been deprived of their hard-earned mode of conveyance by arsonists had been out on the roads of the city to earn their livelihood for the sake of their family members.

He told the journalists that the provincial government had been taking steps to compensate the innocent citizens for the losses they suffered during the incidents of the May 9 mayhem.

The minister made it clear that the arsonists who had resorted to acts of violence and vandalism in the city on May 9 would have to pay for the damages caused by them.

He said the people who had been involved in the torching of buses and other vehicles would have to pay penalties to compensate the state and the affected citizens for their losses.

He told the journalists that the police had registered the first information report of the incidents of the damaging of buses of the Peoples Bus Service and other acts of vandalism in Karachi on May 9.

Memon recalled that the government had compensated affected traders for their losses during past incidents of arson and accidental fires in Karachi, including the instances of the torching of the Bolton Market as well as the Timber Market fire.

He said the Sindh government had compensated people for their losses in such incidents in accordance with the directions of the top leadership of the Pakistan Peoples Party, who always stood for taking care of the welfare of the people.

The information minister lamented that buses, which provided modern commuting facilities to the citizens on a daily basis in Karachi, had been damaged by the arsonists. He mentioned that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan did not use these buses, as they were brought to the city for the benefit of the people belonging to the low- and middle-income groups.