Five years have passed by but residents of Rawalpindi feel that the government has been unable to deliver an efficient public transport system. The public transport service is still being run by private transporters, who are belligerent when it comes to following traffic rules. A common complaint these days is that they do not complete their designated routes, and leave passengers stranded.Mohammad Bilal, a university student, recounted: “When I boarded the route number 7 wagon, the conductor told me that it would complete the designated route and would travel from Golra Mor to Rawat. But when we reached the Soan bus stand, which is in the middle of the route, the conductor told the passengers that the wagon was not going to Rawat. The four passengers were told that they would be accommodated in another wagon.”

Similarly, Mohammad Saleh, a white collar worker, told Dawn: “I was going to the Secretariat in a wagon when I was asked to disembark at Faizabad and take another wagon. I was told that there was a technical fault, but there was none. The driver did not want to travel with the bus half full till the Secretariat.”

When Dawn contacted Syed Asad Raza Kazmi, secretary Regional Transport Authority (RTA), he agreed that the wagons plying between Saddar in Rawalpindi and the Secretariat in Islamabad were not finishing their entire route.

“When the bus driver gets to the bus stand at Faizabad, instead of going to the Secretariat, he takes a U-turn from the Islamabad Highway and returns to Rawalpindi,” he said.

He explained that the RTA cannot do anything about the diversion since both the Faizabad bus bay and Islamabad highway are located in capital territory, which is out of the RTA’s jurisdiction. “It is the federal capital territory’s administration that is not checking that the public transporters complete their route,” he said.

Mr Kazmi admitted that even the RTA often finds its hands tied due to staff shortage, as it only has one inspector and two constables to check the route violations by public transport drivers. “I have requested the CPO Rawalpindi to provide us with extra force so that we could take action against such drivers who violate route. Traffic wardens deployed at various points should bar wagon and Suzuki pick-ups to go back to Islamabad if they have not completed their route,” he added.

On the other hand, Malik Sultan Awan, the president of wagon drivers’ union, defended the public transport drivers and said that they were not wholly responsible for the issue. “It is the Punjab government that is responsible for the commuters’ problems. The fares are so low on these routes: from Saddar to Faizabad the fare is Rs20 but from Saddar to the Secretariat the fare is Rs25,” he said.

He rationalised that when transporters can get Rs20 for almost half the distance, why would they drive all the way to the Secretariat for Rs25. “Definitely, the driver would prefer to drop passengers at Faizabad and turn back to Saddar. Due to the low fare, more than 200 wagons plying between Rawalpindi-Islamabad have been diverted to other profitable routes. The government should review its fare list and increase it, if the commuters’ problems are to be solved,” he suggested.

When Dawn contacted Chief Traffic Officer Ghulam Abbas Tarar, he gave an entirely different reason: “There have been complaints about drivers not completing routes, but most of them were because of shortage of CNG.” He further claimed that the government has increased the fine for traffic violations, which includes non-completion of designated routes, and they were imposing the same.

Whatever the tussle between the government and the transporters may be over the fare list, they should behave responsibly and ensure that the passengers are not unnecessarily inconvenienced between them.