The suspension of long route intercity bus service has started taking a toll on essential workers associated with the business.
Almost all public transport vehicles on long routes have been closed for the last 15 days after devastating floods washed away roads and bridges in Balochistan, Sindh and South Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
The intercity transport from Rawalpindi to other cities including Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Hyderabad and Sukkur has been halted.
As a result, the essential staff including drivers, co-drivers, conductors, bus hostesses and booking clerks been without work, rendering them empty-pocketed.
All 33 small and big transport stands in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad present a deserted look due to the suspension of the intercity bus service and workers of these bus stands have been without work for the last over two weeks.
Families of the staff, who are associated with the long route transport business, have been badly affected by the suspension of the service. The transport staff said that they were forced to eat meals from Langar Khana and other charity centres after the suspension of the intercity bus service since August 26.
About 98 per cent of these staff works as daily wagers and on commission and with the closure of the long routes, they have been facing starvation.
Bus hostesses working in big transport companies who were staying in hostels in Pirwadhai and Faizabad have been evicted from hostels for non-payment of rent, while their owners have asked them to join duty with the restoration of long routes.
Izzatullah, an officer of a big transport company, said that 95 per cent of the employees in transport companies either worked on commission or as daily wagers. He said that their jobs automatically come to an end if the service remains suspended.
He said that only five to six per cent of staff in these companies work as regular staff. He said that hopefully all closed routes will be opened in seven to 10 days and transporters will be allowed to operate buses on long routes. He said that negotiations have been held with the Regional Transport Authority in this regard.
Public transport on all long routes will be restored by September 15, he said. Bus hostess Farida Jabeen said that their bus service between Rawalpindi and Karachi has been stopped since August 26.
She said that transport owners pay the salary and commis-sion only if the bus service was operational.
“We have earned nothing since August 26. I did not have money to pay my hostel rent that is why I left the hostel and now live in the house of a fellow hostess house,” she said adding that to the service resumes in two to three days, her employment will be restored, otherwise, she will go back to hometown in Jhelum.
She said that once she returned to her home, she might not be able to come back. Drivers Qasim Khan and Mehroz Abbas said that they have started driving rickshaws due to the closure of the long routes, in order to make a living.
They said that scores of long route drivers have become unemployed.
Security guards, Humayun Khan and Shaukat Satti said that they should be given financial assistance due to the stoppage of salary and loss of
employment.
They said that they have been rendered jobless by floods and they needed financial help.
RTA spokesperson Rana Sadaqat said that only long routes of flooded areas have been closed while all other routes were open.
He said that a large number of vehicles which used to ply between Rawalpindi and Karachi and Hyderabad, now ply from Rawalpindi to Lahore, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Peshawar, Charsadda, Torkham, Gujranwala, Multan, Sargodha, Kohat, Khushab, Rahim Yar Khan and Azad Kashmir.
He said that the train service will be restored in the first phase followed by the bus service. Due to the flood season, we have temporarily allowed vehicles to ply in any city without route permits, he added.
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