Working women hailing from twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad are eagerly waiting for commencement of Metro Bus Service to get rid of their long standing problem of a “respectable transport”.
A separate van service Tabeer was started for women in February last year for a pilot project of three month which was later suspended in May.
The concerned authorities had announced that Metro service would have separate portion for women which would cater their demand so there is no need to continue the van service.
Shazia Ijaz, an employee of a private office at Aabpara said, “We are eagerly waiting for Metro Bus Service as they face number of problems while reaching their destinations daily.”
She said conductors are not willing to board women especially during rush hours in morning and evening and behave rudely with us, use indecent language and treat us like a worthless and unwanted creatures.
She said, drivers are not willing to board women on vans except the two front seats reserved for them and even try to accommodate three women to get more fare.
Shahnaz Manzoor, a student of Islamabad Model College for Girls F-7/4 said, “In morning and after college bus stops are full of women and drivers even do not apply break at college stop saying that women take more time to board than men so it’s better to go for a male passenger.”
She added the conductors misbehave with women passengers and do not the remaining amount until asked.
Asia Sajid, a student of a Foundation University, said she lives at Saidpur Road which is not far away from her university but she has to leave home at 6am to reach in time at university for the first lecture at 8:30am. She said the two seats were reserved almost three decades back and no one bothered to look into the matter or revise the seats despite daily complaints by women.