KARACHI: The Sindh government has so far failed to remove illegal bus terminal from the busiest residential and commercial area of Saddar despite an intercity bus terminal on M-9 motorway near Sohrab Goth has been functional for the past several years.

The illegal bus terminal at Taj Complex, Saddar, is a nuisance for residents of this area and a permanent source of traffic jam in the whole locality.

Hundreds of buses and coaches are parked in this area at any hour of the day creating a big mess and crippling traffic movement.

The government has already set up a spacious bus terminal near Sohrab Goth on M-9 Motorway with the sole purpose of shifting illegal bus terminals from Saddar and surrounding areas with a cost of millions of rupees spent from taxpayers’ money.

However, the government has still failed to remove the illegal bus terminal of Saddar, which indicates “the corrupt and dysfunctional bureaucracy of transport department and other related agencies”, sources told the PPI.

They said that removing this illegal bus terminal was not a big deal and just a deputy commissioner could do the job if there was a real will.

They said the bureaucracy did not want to shift this illegal bus stand from Saddar because it was a ‘lucrative source of protection money’.

This illegal bus terminal in the centre of Karachi is a big question mark on the level and quality of governance and administration.

When such glaring examples of inefficiency are visible in busiest areas like Saddar, it becomes easier for opponents of the PPP government in Sindh to talk about federal directives and interventions to tell the provincial government how to run its affairs efficiently.

The chairman of ruling provincial party Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Sindh Transport Minister Owais Shah, Sindh Local Government Minister Nasir Shah, chief secretary Mumtaz Ali Shah, Karachi commissioner Iftikhar Shallwani, and DIG traffic Javed Ali Meher have been urged personally to take notice of this serious issue and ensure shifting of this illegal bus terminal from Taj Complex and surrounding streets of Saddar to the legally set up bus terminal near Sohrab Goth at the earliest.

This would not only give a respectable look to Saddar, but would also end crippling traffic jams in the area, besides improving the governance image of the provincial government of Sindh and the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2019