Karachi: On the call of Ameer Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Pakistan Engr Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, a youth protest demonstration was held at the Karachi Press Club as part of a nationwide protest movement against the lack of an empowered local government system, the e-challan system, traffic accidents, and other serious civic and municipal issues.A large number of youth from across Karachi participated in the demonstration, outside the KPC, here on Sunday evening.Cart riders (donkey-cart owners) also joined the protest in large numbers along with their carts, expressing anger against the government.Protesters carried banners and placards bearing slogans such as 'Rein in the tanker mafia,' 'Provide alternative routes for heavy traffic,' 'Bloody accidents are the result of the government's criminal silence,' and 'Stop looting in the name of e-challans.'Addressing the protest, JI Karachi Ameer Monem Zafar said that on the call of Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman, protests for an empowered local government system were ongoing not only in Karachi but across Pakistan. He said the Pakistan Peoples Party's 17-year rule was a collection of incompetence, mismanagement, and worst corruption. He added that Karachi's youth had been protesting for the past 15 days against the city's basic problems.Rejecting the e-challan system, he demanded that this punitive system of fines be changed immediately. He said a system had been imposed on Sindh that had held Karachi hostage, and every small and big trader, citizen, and even every child in Karachi knew who was controlling this system and who had shifted it from Sindh to Islamabad.Monem Zafar said the Sindh government was keen to take its full share from the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award but had been unwilling for 17 years to announce the Provincial Finance Commission (PFC) Award.He further said that under the Safe City Project, cameras were to be installed in 2011, but now it was 2025. While Safe City cameras were still not installed, cameras for collecting challans had certainly been installed. He claimed that at least 85 people in the city had received extortion slips, and when traders held press conferences, the Chief Minister questioned why they needed to do so.He said Karachi's citizens did not have access to dignified public transport, forcing youth to travel on motorcycles, and now the Sindh government was extorting heavy fines from motorcyclists in the name of e-challans. He clarified that Jamaat-e-Islami was not against e-challans but against violations of the law, and questioned under which law motorcyclists were being fined up to Rs. 5,000.Addressing the protest, JI youth wing leader Hashim Yousaf Abdali said the large turnout of youth in a short time proved that Karachi's youth had awakened and were determined to raise their voices for their rights.He said the condition of Karachi's roads had deteriorated so badly that even donkey carts could hardly move, yet instead of providing facilities, the Sindh government and the 'imposed mayor' were burdening citizens with ne w taxes and heavy e-challans.He said more than 40,000 people had been injured by dog bites in the past year, but government hospitals lacked medicines for their treatment. Similarly, 7.8 million children in Sindh were out of school, but rulers seemed to notice only 4 million motorcyclists on whom they were imposing the burden of challans.