The government of Sindh has achieved a tremendous success in the high court case to get illegal Qingqi rickshaws banned scampering around busy arteries of the city. However, the condition of transport system is already pathetic and there seems no immediate alternative available for Qingqi. Consequently, thousands of citizens plus the people associated with Qingqi business would have to suffer.
Spokesperson for Sindh transport minister Shakeel Dogar said the case was filed in the best interest of citizens and on the basis of complaints made by them. “At once, we were even considering it to be legalized by giving them route permit, but it could not become possible. Because, nowhere in the world this kind of transport is found on main roads,” he said.
He assured that the Sindh government had expedited work on three bus lines to be initiated soon – Green Line, Orange Line and Yellow Line. Apart from this, work on Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) was also being looked into to get it done at earliest.
Karachi Mass Transit Cell Director Fazal Karim Khatri said the process to complete the bring Green Line bus service, to be built by the federal government, was fast and it would take 12 months to get it completed after its construction starts. “Yellow Line, 26 km, and Orange Line, 4 km, will also be built along Green Line,” he said.
BAN ON CHINGCHI WELCOMED
Various sections of the society supported the ban on Qingqi rickshaw with a demand that poor, outdated and defective transport system, which had paved the way for Qingqi, should be given immediate attention to cater the need of commuting.
They also called for taking steps for alternative small and economical Qingqi rickshaws or better public transport system by the authorities or transporters to ease the miseries of commuters because the existing public transport system lacked the ability and capacity.
Karachi Transport Action Committee President Asharaf Banglori said Qingqi rickshaw hade already been failed in Punjab due to availability of better alternatives.
Asharaf Banglori said that the project like Metro Bus should also be introduced in Sindh to provide better traveling facilities to commuters. He said that Qingqi rickshaws disturb the otherwise smooth flow of traffic on busy roads and thoroughfares.
Majority of the Qingqi rickshaw do not bother to use side-glass, thus, multiplying the risk of accidents because they cannot see the vehicles coming either side behind them, he added.
He said that Qingqi rickshaws were being plied without registration, number plates, route permits and payment of any taxes. The drivers of these rickshaws do not have driving licenses and sometimes driven by young boys, he added.
He said the transporters had suffered a lot due to law and order situation as well as erratic supply of CNG, in such situation, they are not able to contribute immediately to improve transport system.
Kashif Siddiqi, an 18-year-old student, said it would be better to travel in Qingqi, rather than old and damaged over-loaded buses and wagon. “We always got seat and travel seat-by-seat in the Qingqi.”
“We can only anticipate misbehavior and unethical conduct with the drivers and conductors of the buses and wagons, because majority of them are arrogant and illiterate.”
Another passenger, Javed Ahmed, pointed that non-availability of seats in the buses and wagon, and said often he traveled in over-loaded buses and wagons with sense of insecurity.
Muhammad Zubair, a middle-age owner of a Ching-Chi Rickshaw said, he is sole bread earner in his 8-member family and the ban on Qingqi has deprived him of his one and only source of income.
He said he was very poor and purchased a Qingqi with a small investment, now he was too much worried that how he will make both ends meet. Talking about the transport system, Member Governing Body of Karachi Press Club, Agha Syed Karam Ali Shah expressed his apprehensions that outdated buses and wagons are major source of commuting in Karachi. Due to monopoly of the transport mafia, they would not bother to pour investments in the transport system, he said.
“The Qingqi rickshaw are a good source of communication and if attention is not given to transport system, then the transporters will continue to make profit from their existing old and damaged buses and wagon as they now treat the commuters in a cruel way,” he said.
He said old buses which were unfit for running that too by illiterate and ignorant drivers. He said it was a bitter truth that Karachi, despite being the largest city of Pakistan, had an outdated public transport system with buses and wagons without road fitness licenses.
It may be noted here that a bench of the High Court of Sindh on August 5, 2015, imposed ban on running Qingqi rickshaws in Karachi and other areas of Sindh in its verdict over several petitions declared running of these rickshaws a violation of Motor Vehicle Rules 1969.
More than 10 petitions were filed in the court to seek the court’s verdict over the legal position of Qingqi rickshaws. Earlier, the court had issued a stay order against the crackdown over Qingqi rickshaws in 2013.