Off-track: Pakistan’s first female cabbie on a ride to nowhere

Zahida Kazmi confined to house for want of resources, poor health

ISLAMABAD: To be a single parent in an impoverished household is not the only challenge facing Zahida Kazmi, the woman who defied the norm by becoming the first female cab driver of the country a few years ago.

She is struggling with financial and health crises and is at the mercy of strangers, who provide her with any help they could.

“My own family abandoned me a long time ago and scoffed at me for driving a taxi,” says Zahida. “No one stood by me and my children even when I was widowed for the second time.”



A mother to two sons and five daughters, she is presently raising her youngest daughter, 10-year-old Zahra.

Having recently suffered brain haemorrhage, Zahida is also battling diabetes and hypertension. Although a doctor has been providing medicines and administering injections to her for free, she cannot afford proper treatment. “My blood pressure stays high and the doctor has warned me of renal failure if it stays that way.”

Now well into her 50s, Zahida has suffered many a hardship. “I have been self-sufficient and have held my head high all my life. Why, then, should I beg now? But I cannot even afford basic food rations, and so eat whatever anyone has to offer.”

There used to be a time when people placed orders for her kebabs and koftas, but even that business seems a distant dream now, as she has no capital at her disposal.

After reading about Zahida’s plight, a donor recently handed her Rs10,000 for basic expenditures, but she paid the amount to the driver who provides pick-and-drop service for her school-going daughter. “The driver had not been paid for around seven months. I have returned to a hand-to-mouth life.”

Once traversing some of the most treacherous terrains of the country, she has now been confined to her house for want of resources and poor health.

Though life is unpredictable, for Zahida her daughter is a symbol of enduring hope. “I have no desires whatsoever except for my daughter to get an education. She just finished the Holy Quran, and scored 91% in her school tests,” said the proud mother.

A group of volunteers are raising funds through the social media to buy a van for Zahida so she could start an intercity pick-and-drop service for schoolchildren.

The van would help her become self-reliant again. “With a vehicle I can have my independence and well-being back,” she said. “I know this is a test from God, and I pray that He gives me the patience to persevere, like I always have.”



Her landlords have allowed her to stay in their house in Rawalpindi without asking her for any rent. But she needs a lot more support to return to a quality life for herself and her daughter.

Details about the fundraising campaign are available on www.facebook.com/femalecabbie

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st,  2015.