Transport woes in Karachi

During the past 12 years not a single public bus has been launched in the metropolis


October 07, 2020

The recent past has seen a phenomenal rise in political lying ranging from grand lies that have caused wars and large-scale destruction to small and innocuous-looking lies but causing grave difficulties to the common people. Taking a cue from Christopher Marlowe’s line from Dr Faustus: “The face that launched a thousand ships”, around 18 months ago, the then transport minister of Sindh had announced with much ado that 1,000 new air-conditioned buses would be run soon in Karachi, and an agreement had been reached with the Daewoo transport company for the purpose.

However, during the past 12 years not a single public bus has been launched in the metropolis, according to press reports. This seems an underestimate as a Sindh government official has admitted that in the past 16 years no new bus scheme has been launched in the city. Ironically, all the new buses that had come out on the road earlier have gradually disappeared. No one knows what became of these buses and those of the defunct KTC. In 2017, Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah had okayed a plan to introduce 600 new buses for Karachi and for intercity routes. But so far nothing has come out of these promises. For the past several years, commuters have been left to fend for themselves as a result of a near-total absence of public transport in the biggest city of the country.

People have been facing a miserable situation in consequence of the official apathy and mismanagement. Commuters have to travel long distance by rickshaws that carry nine people, including the driver, sticking to one another or by bikes with one or two persons on the pillion. This is at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has not much subsided. If politicians have to give a free play to their lofty imagination, they should as well have announced sending a thousand ships into the outer space. They might promise even things that don’t exist.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 7th, 2020.

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