The Sindh Assembly Tuesday told that there were no emergency gates in public transport buses in Sindh province plying on inter-city or intra-city routes.
The lawmakers were discussing a resolution of Syed Khalid Ahmed of the MQM that demanded all-out steps to ensure safety and security of passengers.
They said the greedy transporters had closed the emergency gates in their vehicles and placed extra seats on that space to maximise their profits; however, in case of road accidents, many innocent lives are lost due to lack the emergency exit gates. Citing the example of a recent fatal bus fire accident on link road near Superhighway Karachi in which dozens of passengers including women and children burnt alive, they said this bus also had its emergency exit gate closed and extra seats installed in it.
Rauf Siddiqui of the MQM said even the big city like Karachi had no proper bus terminal where the condition and facilities in public transport buses were checked. Due to lack of government writ, transporters erected their own bus terminals in commercial and residential areas, he added.
Nusrat Sher Abbasi of the PML-F said the transporters mafia had no regard for human lives and they were only concerned to get more and more profit at the cost of passengers; however, the Sindh government did not take any action against them.
Pesu Mal of the PPPP said that at the toll plaza of Superhighway all passengers of buses were checked and humiliated by the government agencies, but these government departments did not check if these buses had proper emergency exit gates, hammers to break window panes in case of emergency, fire-fighting equipment and first-aid kit.
He asked the Sindh transport department to set up its own check posts on different highways of Sindh and check if the public transport vehicles had proper emergency exit gates, hammers to break window panes in case of emergency, fire fighting equipment and first-aid kit, and other facilities mandatory as per law.
