KARACHI, June 8: Often, it has been seen on the city roads that public transport buses do not stop at bus stops when more than one traffic police constable are present there.

On Friday evening this scribe had this agonizing experience at the bus stop at the junction of Bahadurabad and Tariq Road.

This situation causes problems to those who have either to get down from buses or have to board them. Those who have to get down at a particular bus stop are dropped off at the next distant stop. People waiting for transport at bus stops where traffic cops are standing have to suffer the agony of seeing the buses of their routes whizzing past them even though they signal the buses to stop.

Sometimes it also happens that people are told, or they are given to understand, that what they have been taking as a bus stop for a number of years is, in fact, not the bus stop, as the designated place where buses are to stop are either some distance ahead or some distance behind that “bus stop.”

What this scribe saw and experienced at the Bahadurabad bus stop on Friday was something out of the ordinary of such incidents, however. Coaches and minibuses were not stopping at the bus stop as 3-4 traffic cops were standing on the roads near the bus stop, though it was not clear whether they were checking violation of traffic rules.

People waiting for buses had to suffer the agony of seeing several buses of their routes going past the bus stop without picking passengers. At a distance of about 25 yards the traffic cops were standing. People thought that the place where the cops were standing should be the officially designated bus stop, so they went to that spot in the hope of buses stopping there to take in passengers. But there too they were disappointed as buses did not stop even there.

This scribe failed to stop three passenger coaches, both at the usual bus stop and the supposedly one about 25 yards from there. The coaches arrived there at the interval of nearly half an hour. So after waiting for nearly two hours the scribe had to tell the cops to help him board the coach of his route. Finally, the fourth coach arrived and the cops helped, though in a perfunctory manner, stop it. When the conductor was asked why they were not stopping their vehicles at this bus stop, he said if they stopped there, the cops would challan them. He, however, failed to give a satisfactory answer to the query that if the cops really wanted to stop their buses, they would chase them and force them to stop anyhow.

A large number of people were seen waiting for public transport at that particular bus stop for long. People with families had to suffer the agony of being deprived of transport even though a sufficient number of buses were available. Office-goers and workers returning from work had the same bitter experience in the hot and sultry weather.

“It appears to be part of a drive against violation of traffic rules. This kind of drives are meant for the good of the people, but it makes no sense when the people have to unnecessarily suffer on account of such drives,” said a middle-aged man who, with his family, had been waiting there for a bus.—SG