Two female staffers of the Karachi Port Trust’s (KPT), contractually employed as janitors, were run over by the chairperson’s escort vehicle last Thursday around 3pm at the KPT head office. Till now, the Trust had swept the matter under the carpet, ostensibly because the vehicle was being driven by a Pakistan Navy officer.
Sources told Pakistan Today that the mariner, Naveed, had been deputed as a gunman in KPT Chairperson Nasreen Haque’s security protocol. On the day of the incident, Naveed was driving the escort vehicle without any official entitlement. “The KPT has hired special drivers for the escort vehicle,” sources told Pakistan Today.
The women, whose names were not known to the KPT spokespersons, were rushed to the nearby KPT Hospital in Keamari in, what sources said, was critical condition. The injured were later shifted to Ziauddin Hospital on, what the KPT officials claimed, was a special request of their spouses.
Hospital sources, meanwhile, told Pakistan Today that the two women were now in a stable condition. “Thank God! Their condition is stable now,” a medical staffer said.
On the other hand, KPT officials expressed their ignorance towards the matter, let alone the current condition of their colleagues. “I am unaware of the present condition of the injured women,” an official, requesting anonymity, said.
After multiple queries, however, another official confirmed the incident and said that the two women were part of KPT’s contractual janitorial staff and not permanent employees of the port operator. “The two ladies had their legs fractured. There is noting serious about it. KPT is taking care of the two,” the official claimed.
Ducking a question on official authorization of the mariner to drive the chairperson’s escort vehicle, the official claimed that those involved would be taken to task as per “the laws of the land.”
“There is an entire team in the chairperson’s squad but KPT is taking action against those involved,” the official said.