June 28, 2008	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Sani 23, 1429

KARACHI, June 27: Criticising the attitude and performance of the City District Government Karachi (CDGK), Sindh Minister for Transport Akhtar Hussain Jadoon has said that the provincial government will henceforth utilise certain federal funds for the public transport sector by itself instead of releasing them to the city government’s transport department.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday evening, he pointed out that the federal government was providing funds to the CDGK transport department through the provincial government but the city government’s performance stood dissatisfactory due to its flawed policies for the public transport sector.

He noted that the CDGK had inducted 70 green buses in the city’s public transport fleet but all these vehicles vanished from the city roads within the next few months. “Now the CDGK says it will induct another 4,000 CNG buses which is questionable considering its past performance,” he added.

The minister said that the Sindh government was holding talks with various foreign firms with a view to resolve the public transport problem in Karachi and other parts of Sindh. He announced that 500 buses would be brought in for Karachi and the Sindh interior soon and an increased number of vehicles would be inducted every year. He made it clear that the buses would be operated by the provincial transport department by itself.

Mr Jadoon also accused the CDGK of interfering into the affairs of his department. In this regard, he said that the city government was not allowing the newly-posted EDO transport to take the charge of his office although the officer in-charge had already been transferred and he, at present, was on a foreign visit at government expense.

He said that Rs9.36 billion of the department had been spent on such foreign visits, adding that a probe into the wastage of such a big amount of the public money would be ordered. “Looters and plunderers of the public money will be taken to task,” he declared.

The minister was also critical of the traffic police personnel, saying that many of them indulged in extorting transporters. He noted that fake vehicle fitness certificates were being issued to the transporters after accepting bribe. He said that some transporters, in connivance with corrupt elements in the traffic police and the city government, were occupying bus termini and other properties of the transport department. The provincial government would get all these properties vacated at all costs, he said

Mr Jadoon said that on the special instructions from PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, the Sindh government would foot the bill of conversion of around 70,000 two-stroke rickshaws to four-stroke tri-wheelers. The transporters operating diesel buses would be provided CNG-powered engines, he added.

The provincial transport department, he said wanted to extend all possible facilities to commuters but there were certain elements who were putting hurdles in its way. He said his ministry was in touch with the chief minister and top PPP leadership for action against these elements.

Meanwhile, the Karachi Transport Ittehad (KTI), a conglomerate of several public transport operators, has strongly criticised the personnel of CDGK’s community police, accusing them of misbehaving with crew of buses and extortion.

In a statement issued here on Friday, they referred to the Thursday incident in which a bus driver was severely beaten up at Empress Market. They demanded action against the personnel involved in the incident.

They said such excesses by the community police would not be tolerated, warning that a wheel-jam strike would be observed if this “parallel policing system” was not done away with.—PPI