Eid with loved ones: Exodus of homebound passengers seen at bus stands

Officials conspicuous by absence to attend to complaints

ISLAMABAD: An exodus of homebound passengers was witnessed at bus terminals in the twin cities on Monday as thousands of men, women and families left for their native towns to celebrate Eid with their loved ones.

At the two major bus terminals — Pirwadhai and Faizabad, and at other inter-city stands — passengers made their all-out efforts to get tickets to embark on a journey to reach their respective destinations.

As Monday was the last working day before the long weekend starts, thousands of people from the twin cities thronged bus stands with some passengers complaining about overcharging by transporters, while some groaning about not being able to find seats of their choice.

At almost all major inter-city bus stands, no official from the Islamabad Traffic Police, the Rawalpindi Regional Transport Authority or the Islamabad Capital Territory Administration was available to entertain public complaints about overcharging.

Adeel Ahmed, a passenger at Pirwadhai Bus Stand, said the transporters were charging commuters at will.

“People have to pay whatever the transporters demanded. We do not have any other option but to pay,” said Ahmed. “The fare for Sargodha is Rs400 but I was charged Rs500,” complained Mohammad Ahmad, 45.

He said, however, that he did not insist on returning the money because he wanted to be with his family as soon as possible.

On some routes, transporters refused to take in passengers who were destined for towns falling along the bus routes.

Buses and vans going to Gujranwala, Lahore and Sialkot refused to take in passengers of Dina, Jhelum and Gujrat, so that they could sell full tickets.

“We always travel on buses and vans plying between Rawalpindi and Lahore. But now they are telling us that they would take in route-end passengers only,” said Abdul Qayyum, who was going to Sohawa, a town on the GT Road in Jhelum District.

On the other hand, some service providers have started running special executive busses with better facilities for extra charges.

Some people preferred to avail executive service to avoid inconvenience.

“I was offered the last seat in a bus for a four hour journey. I refused it and have availed a ticket of an executive bus service though I had to pay Rs200 extra,” said Almas who was going to Lahore from Faizabad Bus Stand. Some transporters, however, claimed that their fares were unchanged.

“We are charging the same fare as before Ramazan,” said a ticket-booking official at the Karachi Company Bus Stand.

He, however, said that seats had already been booked.

“My seat is reserved for Peshawar but the bus will leave at 4pm so I will have to wait for two hours,” said Aneela who was sitting in a room at the Faizabad Bus Stand.

At many places, there were no waiting rooms or seating arrangements for passengers especially for women and children and they were sitting or standing near ticket issuing points on a comparatively hot day.

The Northern Areas Transport Corporation (Natco), a government-run bus service between Gilgit-Baltistan and Rawalpindi, also ran short of buses. A Natco official told The Express Tribune that there was not a single seat available for Gilgit from Tuesday to Saturday.

Some service providers have also arranged extra buses to facilitate commuters. “Usually, we run 30 buses but now we have arranged 10 more buses,” a bus service a manager at Faizabad said adding that extra buses had been employed so that “no one was left here just because of the lack of transportation”.

ITP SSP Malik Matloob, however, claimed that the traffic police were taking action against transporters charging high fares.

“No transporter would be allowed to fleece the passengers,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 5^th, 2016.