PPP senator criticizes import of buses

KARACHI: A senior leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, Senator Taj Haider, has said that it is ironic that buses are being imported for public transport schemes while the local industries having capacity to produce thousands of buses annually are lying non-functional.

In a press statement issued on Thursday, the PPP senator said that the Sindh Engineering Ltd in Karachi alone had the capacity to produce 3,000 buses a year. When Sindh Engineering Ltd had been functional, it used to pay millions of rupees in taxes while its employees got eight to nine bonuses a year, said the PPP senator who is also a member of the Senate’s Standing Committee on Industries and Production.

The organization in Karachi also produced thousands of trucks for the Pakistan Army as the trucks produced by it had been able to reach remotely located areas, a feat that even imported trucks were not able to perform, he said.

He said the country didn’t need cosmetic measures to resolve the mass transportation issues rather public buses should be run on the greater number of routes for resolving the mass transit problem.

The senator said he would ensure that the issue of buses being imported for public transport schemes would be placed on the upcoming meeting of Senate’s standing committee on Industries and Production.