People who previously used rickshaws, motorbikes and pick-up vans to make their way around the city now find themselves perched atop donkey carts. Donkey carts, obviously, do not depend on petrol and, hence, are in high demand amongst vendors wanting to transport goods. The city has been facing a grave, extended petrol shortage and the petrol available is being sold at exorbitant prices.
Donkey cart owners have also wisened up to the surge in their popularity and have raised fares but the price is still less than petrol-run vehicles, said whole seller Muhammad Iqbal.
“I used to pay rickshaws Rs200 but now they want Rs400 so I hired a donkey cart for Rs250,” he said.
A donkey cart owner said that in the last week he had been very busy and had made significantly more money. “I used to earn Rs400 to Rs500 every day but for the last week my earnings have skyrocketed to between Rs800 and Rs900,” said cart owner Arif Hussain, adding that the fuel shortage had proved to be a ‘blessing’ for him.
The scarcity of petrol is omnipresent in the city. However, some change for the better was observed.
The queues and the time it took to get petrol seem to have decreased. Motorists using CNG have not been affected but the going is tough for motorcyclists. Motorcyclist Muazam Malik said, “Two days ago it took me one hour to get petrol but since two days it has been taking me close to 20 minutes.”
Malik added that last weekend the Ministry of Petroleum had tried to assuage the public’s concern, saying that the situation would improve in a day or two, but there seemed to be no end in sight.
PSO managing director Irfan Sheikh hoped the situation would improve in the next two days.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 23rd, 2010.
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