KARACHI: As the ride-hailing services and the Sindh government come close to resolving issues of route permits, the provincial authorities have prepared a checklist for the companies to address security of the people using them after they “received a few complaints of crime-related activities being executed through these vehicles”, said a top official on Monday.

The disclosure came from the top when Sindh Transport Minister Syed Owais Qadir claimed to have received at least two complaints against one of the two major ride-hailing services in Karachi and the nature of attempted illegal activity was not a minor one.

“I have personally received two written complaints against one of the services and one of the complainants has personally met me in my office,” he told Dawn when asked why so much focus on security-related compliance by the Sindh government. “Both complaints were related to kidnapping attempts. This is a serious issue and we need to address it immediately. We can’t be so callous and it’s under my domain to ensure safe and secure transport service for the people.”

Transport minister says firms have not shared data of their fleets with him

Last month, the transport minister ordered Careem and Uber to obtain route permits within a week or be prepared to “face a ban”. After the warning, the provincial regulatory body and the operators apparently agreed to expedite the process. However, this time the issue doesn’t seem only about the route permits as minister Shah sounded more concerned about the security issues than the regulation of his transport department.

The minister mentioned two episodes which had come to his notice directly through the affected persons in which attempts of kidnappings were made by the drivers apart from an incident last month when a woman jumped out of a moving Careem car on Sharea Faisal to escape alleged harassment by the driver. The police had later arrested and booked the driver on charges of harassment. The situation pushed the Sindh ministry to take up the issues of both transport regulation and security at the same time.

“We have prepared a checklist for the companies [ride-hailing services] which would enable us to monitor their security standards. It also involves the role of our law enforcement agencies and we have decided to involve police in the process. We require one simple thing — safe and secure ride for the people. For that objective we would go to every extent which falls under our domain,” said Mr Shah.

He questioned the way ride-hailing services responded to the government’s queries. Despite heading the transport ministry, Mr Shah wondered, he did not even know the number of vehicles being operated by the ride-hailing services as the companies had not shared such data with his ministry.

The minister’s claims were confirmed to a large extent when, despite repeated attempts, none of the two major companies — Careem and Uber — responded to Dawn’s queries and shared the number of vehicles they are running in Karachi and other parts of the province and their status of talks with the government.

When asked about the mandate of his ministry in addressing security issues of the ride-hailing services, Mr Shah said that being a regulatory body of the transport system, it enjoyed all powers to ensure safety and security of the passengers in every aspect.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2018