Inquiry report: NHA, Steel Mill, traffic police, govt blamed for highway accident

Report sent to Sindh IG who will forward it to the CM

KARACHI: An inquiry committee constituted to probe the deadly accident on Kathore Link Road on January 11 has placed the blame on everyone from the National Highway Authority (NHA) to Pakistan Steel Mills, the traffic police and the Sindh government.

At least 62 passengers were onboard the Shikarpur-bound Geo alShoaib Coach when it collided with a tanker on the highway. All the passengers were burned alive in the accident.

The authorities sprang into action in the aftermath of the accident and started the customary setup of inquiry committees. So far, the police have only arrested the tanker driver, Muhammad Hanif, after he surrendered himself to the police a couple of days after the horrifying accident. The police are still looking for the owner and driver of the bus as well as the owner of the tanker.

An official privy to the matter told The Express Tribune that the government officials were also blamed in the inquiry report for not maintaining the link road despite several warnings. Traffic SP Asghar Usman said that he had written several letters to the commissioner to maintain the road but nothing happened. "Both the NHA and the Sindh government are earning from the road but no one is willing to invest that money on the maintenance of the road," claimed SP Usman.

In the report, the officials also highlighted the role of the traffic police and accused them of letting vehicles without fitness certificates and expired route permits ply the roads.

They also blamed the Road Traffic Authority and Motor Vehicle Inspection departments of negligence.

The report has been sent to Sindh IG Ghulam Hyder Jamali, who will forward it to Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah. The officials have asked their superiors to take actions against these departments' officials.

"What we wrote in the inquiry is what we saw," pointed out SP Malik Altaf, who is also a member of the five-member inquiry team.

SP Altaf claimed they have traced the remaining suspects and their houses but the accused men have gone into hiding. Two police teams are in Shikarpur and Punjab trying to arrest them, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th, 2015.