Defying orders: Transporters charge passengers old rates

"Transporters are charging 200 more than the actual fare", says a passenger.

PESHAWAR: The scarcity of public buses at the general bus stand due to the three-day Tablighi Ijtima in Lahore has troubled passengers travelling in and out of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Transporters have been overcharging customers despite the issuance of a fare list by the Regional Transport Authority after the decrease in oil prices. “The government had issued the fare list which says that 700 hundred should charge from Peshawar to Lahore and 600 to Multan but transporters are charging 200 more than the actual fare,” said a passenger, Din Muhammad. Transporters defied the list, justifying the hiked up fares on the pretext of the reduced number of vehicles. “The fare from Peshawar to Mingora was Rs270 before the decrease in oil prices and the same is being charged now despite the new fare list,” said another passenger, Rahat Ullah, who was visiting Swat.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12^th, 2012.