The government authorities have acceded and surrendered in front of transporters or their ‘legal argument’ for not reducing bus fares in Karachi despite a drastic decrease in the prices of petroleum in international and local markets and orders of prime minister of Pakistan to pass on the relief to the people.
The prices of petrol was reduced twice in a short span of time recently from 103.5 to 94 and then to 84.5 per liter. However, after the first cut the authorities moved to convince transporters and as a result of several meetings ended up by persuading them for reduction of Re 1 only and more interestingly the only rupee cut could also practically not be implemented. After the second cut, the government even did not bother to annoy already ‘suffering’ transporters.
The failure of Sindh government in intra-city transport sector is all known, however, the reasons could be any. When the transporters are asked why they did not cut the prices by Re 1, they make lame excuses of non-issuing of notification to them though the same has already been announced by the government in newspapers and TV channels.
Karachi Transport Ittehad President Irshad Bukhari justified the transporters by saying that slashing bus fares was not possible since no price had been cut on CNG as the buses were being run on CNG and did not have dual fuel option.
“We are still running the buses on less fare than Punjab. The business of transport in the city is suffering a great loss, especially due to chingchis. The number of buses has been reduced from 24,000 to 8,000 within three years,” he told PPI. And, at the same time, he acknowledged that over 60,000 chingchis present in the city were providing far quicker service than the buses, therefore, many commuters preferred to make expensive travel through chingchis.
Component Manger Component Implementation Unit Sindh and focal person of Transport and Mass Transit Department Sindh Yar Muhammed said the government could not pressurise transporters to reduce charges any further because it understood their argument and the poor condition of the sector. “Interior parts of the buses are being cut and placed on the body of trucks and trailers though this practice is not legal as they find no other option,” he said.
Karachi Commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui said that request had again been made to the transporters to further reduce the fares in the best interest of the citizens.
All the stakeholders including the commissioner were unaware of the fact whether or not the meagre amount of Re 1 has practically been cut. The commissioner said he did not get any complaint of non-slashing of prices.
“If the commuters are facing such a situation, they should demand from the transporters,” he maintained.
The minister for transport was not present in his office and his personal number was inaccessible while the secretary transport did not allow any media contact despite waiting for long at the door of his office.
