RAWALPINDI: A four-hour-long strike by the ticketing staff of Metro Bus Service on Thursday morning created problems for commuters between Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

The employees belonging to a private company held the strike against non-payment of last month’s salary.

Punjab Mass-Transit Authority (PMA) has outsourced ticketing, sanitation, operational and security services to private companies.

After the strike, representatives of the PMA and the private company held talks with the employees and assured them that their pays would be paid by January 22.

The strike continued from 6am to 10am during which the commuters, especially office-goers and students, suffered a lot. Due to suspension of the metro service in peak hours, the PMA decided to impose a fine on the private company.

Fine will be imposed on private firm for suspension of service caused by non-payment of salaries to its staff, says official

“PMA has outsourced the ticketing, sanitation, operation of buses, security to private companies and it is the responsibility of the companies to ensure presence of their staff and operate the bus service without any interruptions. After the strike, PMA played the role of a mediator and resolved the issue,” Shamila Mohsin, the MPA manager operations, told Dawn.

She said the payment of salaries to the ticketing staff was the responsibility of the private company - Inbox - which manages the ticketing affairs of the bus service.

“Under the rules, the company has to pay a fine for suspension of the bus service between Rawalpindi and Islamabad for four hours. Daily 110,000 people travel on metro buses generating a revenue of Rs3 million. PMA will calculate the loss and convey it to the company within a day or two,” she said.

Early in the morning, passengers faced hardship after finding the ticketing booths in the metro stations closed. People from Liaquat Bagh to Chandni Chowk mostly travel on foot to reach the nearby metro stations as private transport vehicles are not allowed on Murree Road.

“I faced problems to reach Islamabad as there is no alternative transport on Murree Road. After the launch of the metro service, wagons’ routes were changed,” said Mohammad Imran.

He said the government should also allow public transport on this route so commuters would use it in case of an emergency or other situation when the metro is unavailable.

Munir Ahmed said he and three other office goers had to hire a taxi but the taxi drivers also cashed in on the situation and charged them Rs200 more for Blue Area.

Sumaira Akhter, a university student, said she used metro to and from her university at H-9 but due to the strike she had to change three vehicles on the route.

She said there was a need to run other transport services on the route.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2020