In a bid to get full advantage of the Eid holidays, thousands of people on Friday thronged all the bus terminals to leave for their hometowns to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha with their families and loved ones, amid traffic jams.
Being the last working day before Eidul Azha, travellers crowded all the stands, making it difficult for women and children to even get tickets. Transporters doubled the fares and even overloaded their buses to get full advantage of the situation.
People would enjoy five official Eid holidays this time. On the other hand, as the people began leaving for their hometowns to celebrate Eid, transporters started fleecing them by increasing fares while the authorities paid no heed to the issue. On Friday noon, traffic jams were witnessed on almost all the roads leading to bus terminals of the city. The massive traffic jams were witnessed at Peshawar Morre’s signals at 9th Avenue.
During visits to various bus terminals, including Pirwadhai, Peshawar Morre, Faizabad and Karachi Company, Pakistan Today observed that transporters were overcharging commuters. The exchange of harsh words and scuffles between passengers and transporters were witnessed at almost every bus stand for overcharging.
Arsahd Awan arrived at Al Raja Travel Faizabad bus stand with his 9-member family to travel to his hometown in Azad Kashmir, but transporters were demanding Rs 250 per ticket insread of Rs 190. “How can I pay extra money for nine tickets?” he asked.
Another passenger, Ali Nawaz, said he wanted to go to Multan but transporters were demanding Rs 1,200against the normal fare of Rs 800.
Ali said transporters, in connivance with the authorities, were taking full advantage of the occasion of Eid by demanding and charging extra money.
Meanwhile, transporters are running air-conditioned coaches for long routes such as Lahore, Sialkot, Sargodha, Larkana, Sukkur, Shikarpur, Jacobabad and others and have increased fares by more than Rs 200 to Rs 300 per seat and further increase is expected in next two days.
When contacted, transporters said they had to run empty buses on their way back on the routes, so they were charging extra money to cover expenses. At the evening time of Friday, the capital presented a deserted look as a large number of people, including government employees, have left the city.
