KARACHI – The city’s hustle and bustle wheeled off on Thursday as much of the public transport stayed off the road in compliance with the Karachi Transport Ittehad’s strike call. Frantic government efforts to convince the transports to call off their strike came to naught, with Transport Minister Akhtar Hussain Jadoon returning from the KTI office to the Chief Minister’s House with more demands from transporters.
Transporters are now demanding that the government pays them at least Rs 12 million as compensation money for vehicles torched or damaged during the 2009 Ashura procession, as well as the repeated impounding of buses by the police, sources told Pakistan Today. Jadoon had visited the KTI office on Thursday afternoon to persuade transporters to call off the strike, informing them that the government had agreed the two-rupee increase in public transport fares.
The transporters, in turn, demanded a meeting with Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah as well payment of the compensation money, sources said. Sources said that the Transport Department has forwarded a summary to the chief minister that recommends a two-rupee raise in public transport fares – transporters are waiting for this notification to be passed as well as receiving their compensation money before calling off their strike.
On the other hand, Karachi Transport Ittehad (KTI) Secretary-General Syed Mehmood Afridi told Pakistan Today that the recent hike in POL prices is not acceptable to the transporters community, as the burden of increased costs will fall on the already-poverty stricken people of the metropolis. What the KTI objects to, he argued, is the delay in clearing compensation money that the government owed to the transporters.
“The victims of the 2009 Ashura procession blast, particularly shopkeepers of the Light House market, have been provided with compensation money. But transporters who lost around 25 vehicles are yet to be reimbursed,” Afridi said. “We have asked the Sindh government to provide Rs 200,000 per vehicle for each bus torched during the Ashura blast, as well as Rs 9 million for vehicles damaged in incidents of violence in the city as well as those impounded by the police time and again for their purposes,” Afridi added.
“The transport minister visited our office, but said he was helpless and the only thing he could do was to allow the raise in public transport fares,” Afridi claimed. Meanwhile, thousands of commuters, students and office-goers in the city suffered immense hardships as public transport remained off the roads. Interestingly, even the City District Government Karachi (CDGK)-run green buses were far and few.
In the absence of buses, rickshaw and taxi drivers made good profits for ferrying people from one place to another. Many continued to wait – albeit in futility – for buses to arrive, but even the few that came were overcrowded. After waiting for hours, many returned home, but those with some extra cash hired rickshaws and taxis.
Many commuters criticised the authorities concerned over non-availability of government-run buses, and for leaving the public at the mercy of the “transport mafia.” Motorcyclists and motorists were generally seen offering rides to people waiting at bus stands. Commuters also vehemently criticized the Sindh government for not taking pre-emptive steps to negotiate with the transports to avoid the strike.
They feared that the government would succumb to the transporters’ pressure and raise bus fares.
