Muharram holidays: Not enough buses at some terminals

Those planning to leave the city ahead of Muharram holidays faced problems due to an insufficient numbers of buses.

LAHORE: Those planning to leave the city ahead of Muharram holidays faced problems due to an insufficient numbers of inter-city buses at some bus terminals in the city on Thursday.

Out of a total of 90 buses at the Niazi bus terminal that leave for various cities, only 30 departed for different cites. Meanwhile, only 19 buses departed from the Faisal Movers terminal out of a total of 45 buses for various cities.  Faizan Mustafa, who wanted to leave for Jhang, said that he had been at the Niazi bus terminal for more than four hours. He said that he had planned to return to his hometown and tried to get a seat on any of the buses but the major terminals were all refusing reservations fearing that they may not have buses available to run the service.

Allah Bakhsh, at the Faisal Mover bus terminal said that he had to reach his home in Bahawalnagar to join the ashura precession. He complained that the authorities had not planned special service for this purpose.

Ameer Khan, Niazi bus terminal manager said that most of the passengers had left the city on Wednesday, the last working day before the Muharram holidays. He said that drivers could not bound be relied on to return to Lahore in the Muharram holidays, which they tended to spend at their home towns.

The Daewoo bus service, however, has stopped its service to Jhang, Layya, Bakhar, Chinniot and DI Khan on the 9th and 10th of Muharram, while its transport service on other routes across the country was as per routine, an official of the Daewoo bus service said.

He said that services to the five said destinations had been stopped due to security reasons in account of a curfew in DI Khan and other various Shia processions in the rest of four cities mentioned.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2010.