IT was shocking to see the picture of a Karachi bus in your issue of Aug 31. Believe me, when I first took a look at it I thought it was the picture of a burnt-out bus. But later, when I read what was written beneath the picture, I realised it was not a burnt-out hulk of a bus but of a vehicle that is considered fit for human ride.

It is a matter of shame that one of the world’s biggest cities and Pakistan’s largest should have a transport system fit for animals. Do the governments in Islamabad and Karachi know the agony of millions of people of Karachi?

It is not use blaming the Sindh government alone; all previous governments of this province have been guilty. But let’s note that the federal government too failed to realise the gravity of the problem. Why didn’t the many previous governments in Islamabad put their feet down and develop a modern transport system for Karachi.

A mass transit system costing millions of dollars is beyond the ability of the Sindh government to handle. It is Islamabad that should have mobilised international efforts for giving Karachi a modern, fact and comfortable mass transit system.

I envy some Third World countries which have developed enviable and modern transport systems for their cities. Cairo, Tehran, Delhi, Kolkatta, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Singapore have superb public transport systems, because their governments were keen on giving their people a better commuting system.

Lahore and Multan also have a metro bus system, and Peshawar is going to get one soon. But I don’t feel the completion of the ongoing lines will make a difference to the Karachi situation. What Karachi needs is a wide and integrated system of mass transport system and not just a couple of bus ‘lines’.

The Karachi Circular Railway is a dead horse, and neither the Sindh nor Islamabad government has the will to revive it.

Jameel Eesani
Karachi

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2018