Intercity transporters warn of protest if not allowed to operate from May 20

The Sindh Intercity Bus Association has warned the provincial government that if they are not allowed to have their operations resumed after May 20, they will start their services on their own.

The president of the association, Rab Nawaz, told The News that if the government tried to forcibly stop them, they would park their vehicles on roads in Karachi and hold a protest. Meanwhile, the Sindh government has announced that the transporters will be allowed to operate their buses three days after Eid.

Sindh Transport Minister Awais Shah, in a statement, has said they are working to formulate the standard operation procedures (SOPs) so that immediately after the three days of Eid, the public transport could function in the province.

A four-point summary has been dispatched to Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah in this regard. The final approval rests with the CM. However, Nawaz said they would not wait until Eid. “We are already suffering financially. We don’t have money to feed our kids,” he said, adding that after Eid, they would have no business.

“If we are stopped to operate after May 20, there will be a protest,” he said, adding that they have given two days to the provincial government to draft the SOPs. When asked if they would be able to follow the SOPs, he responded that they could allow one passenger to sit with adjacent seats unoccupied. “But then we will have to charge more,” he said, adding that the Sindh government needed to make an agreement with the transporters in which an increased bus fare had to be included.

The airlines, he pointed out, had been charging two to three times more than their usual fare as they have to enforce social distancing. Addressing a press conference on Sunday, the president of the association said that on the directions of the Sindh government, they had stopped their operations on March 19.

“The provincial government assured us that if the federal government will permit them to ply intercity busses, they will comply with that,” he said. The federal government has now allowed the operations of intercity as well as intra-city transport in the country. “Now even the Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa governments have given permission to the intercity and intra-city transporters to ply their buses,” he said, adding that the Sindh government should also immediately allow them to continue their operations.

He said the Sindh government announced a relaxation on tax. “What benefit will bus owners, employees, contractors and even the passengers will get with this relaxation?” he asked. The passengers, he said, had been paying additional taxes and moving upcountry in the current circumstances. On the one hand, he said, the public transport had been completely shut down and, on the other hand, the alternative transport was plying on the roads.