KARACHI: Public transporters in the provincial capital kept the majority of their minibuses off the roads on the eve of the Election Day, causing severe problems for commuters.
In order to avoid the confiscation of minibuses by police for use in election duties, private transporters on Monday evening decided to ply as fewer minibuses on routes as possible. On Monday night and Tuesday morning the city faced an acute shortage of public transport and a lot of commuters were forced to wait at bus stops.
However, this is not the first time that the transporters took such action. On every sensitive occasion, the transporters decide not to ply minibuses because local police forcibly impound their vehicles and use them for security duty purposes. However, millions of commuters face immense problems on such occasion as they have to hire costly rickshaws and cabs to reach their destinations.
The government and its transport department appear to be unconcerned on this matter. The successive governments have failed to repair and run the Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) despite the continuous demands by the general public. The federal government funded project of the Green Line bus is still in limbo as the provincial government is reportedly not ready to cooperate in early function of the project.
However, the general public expects that the coming governments at the federal and Sindh level would give serious attention to the public transport sector of the megacity to facilitate commuters.
