Tides of misfortune: Jilted by a cruel fate
Journeying to metropolis brings only despair.
ISLAMABAD:
It took seven months for Gul Muhammad Khan to realise his job was no longer feasible. He moved from Ahli Kamboh, Sargodha, to Islamabad earlier this year, only to discover that instead of providing for his family he needed money to keep himself afloat.
For the past three months, Khan has been driving a taxi cab. In good months, he earns about Rs25,000 in fares which is split between the Rs300 per day rent, maintenance expenses and Rs5,000 for living expenses including food and utilities. The end result, he says, is that at the end of the month there is little to no money; sometimes, he has to borrow money.
Compounding his financial worries is the unavailability of CNG between Thursday and Sunday forcing him to switch to the costlier petrol during that time. “Customers don’t understand that we need to charge them more on these days and just refuse to pay”.
But even this, he says, is preferable to his previous job - a driver for a private taxi company where he was allegedly paid Rs7,000 a month plus tips from customers. “But in Pakistan, people even bargain over the cost of fares so they don’t pay much [in tips]”, Khan said adding that he had to pay for speeding tickets while seeing a deduction in his pay if he picked up a client late. “Some months, I was only making Rs3,000”.
An added cost for Khan has been the constant extortion by policemen who stop him at checkposts and if they find nothing to fine him with, invent excuses to get him to pay them off. “They have guns and I have a cab that barely starts. What choice do I have?”
Then there is the small issue of criminals - in the past three months alone, Khan has been robbed four times and in each case, the police have been of little help. He now stores his earnings in the taxi’s horn and prefers driving in the daytime where the fares are lower, but it’s safer.
Though the Taxi Union Association exists to look after the needs of taxi drivers in the twin cities, Khan says he doesn’t believe it would help him. “I might have to pay a large fee to join and all they ever do is go on strike. I can’t afford to stop driving for a single day”, he laments
Khan’s next step may be as a driver for a family where the lower pay is balanced out by paid lodgings and food. In the long run though, he said, he doesn’t know if his future lies in the city. “I might have to go back home and open a shop there. Islamabad has been very cruel to me.”
Published in The Express Tribune, December 20th, 2011.
It took seven months for Gul Muhammad Khan to realise his job was no longer feasible. He moved from Ahli Kamboh, Sargodha, to Islamabad earlier this year, only to discover that instead of providing for his family he needed money to keep himself afloat.
For the past three months, Khan has been driving a taxi cab. In good months, he earns about Rs25,000 in fares which is split between the Rs300 per day rent, maintenance expenses and Rs5,000 for living expenses including food and utilities. The end result, he says, is that at the end of the month there is little to no money; sometimes, he has to borrow money.
Compounding his financial worries is the unavailability of CNG between Thursday and Sunday forcing him to switch to the costlier petrol during that time. “Customers don’t understand that we need to charge them more on these days and just refuse to pay”.
But even this, he says, is preferable to his previous job - a driver for a private taxi company where he was allegedly paid Rs7,000 a month plus tips from customers. “But in Pakistan, people even bargain over the cost of fares so they don’t pay much [in tips]”, Khan said adding that he had to pay for speeding tickets while seeing a deduction in his pay if he picked up a client late. “Some months, I was only making Rs3,000”.
An added cost for Khan has been the constant extortion by policemen who stop him at checkposts and if they find nothing to fine him with, invent excuses to get him to pay them off. “They have guns and I have a cab that barely starts. What choice do I have?”
Then there is the small issue of criminals - in the past three months alone, Khan has been robbed four times and in each case, the police have been of little help. He now stores his earnings in the taxi’s horn and prefers driving in the daytime where the fares are lower, but it’s safer.
Though the Taxi Union Association exists to look after the needs of taxi drivers in the twin cities, Khan says he doesn’t believe it would help him. “I might have to pay a large fee to join and all they ever do is go on strike. I can’t afford to stop driving for a single day”, he laments
Khan’s next step may be as a driver for a family where the lower pay is balanced out by paid lodgings and food. In the long run though, he said, he doesn’t know if his future lies in the city. “I might have to go back home and open a shop there. Islamabad has been very cruel to me.”
Published in The Express Tribune, December 20th, 2011.