Haji Tawab Khan is the vice president of Karachi Transporters’ Ittehad. He is also a member of the mosque committee in his neighbourhood. On the subject of following SOPs in public transport, he says that people mock and ridicule you when you ask them to wear a mask in a mosque. "Do you expect them to listen to you in the buses?"

The public transport system in the city has a fleet of 5,000 mini buses and coaches, all privately owned. Since the easing of the lockdown, however, only five percent of them are plying on roads. The rest are gathering dust at stands. According to Khan, reason for this slow resumption include lack of passengers and labour.

"This has become a challenge for us. The police seize a vehicle if a passenger does not wear a mask. We are not responsible for the passengers’ behavior. It is the duty of the government to make people follow the rules. We are only responsible for the driver and the conductor,” he says while criticising the police crackdown on public transport.

Since June 3, traffic police have impounded 300 mini buses and coaches over violations of SOPs. Transport Minister Awais Qadir Shah has already issued a warning that intra-city public transport will be suspended once again if the transport operators and passengers continue to flout Covid-19 prevention directions.

"It has become a challenge for us. The police seize a vehicle if a passenger does not wear a mask. We are not responsible for the passengers’ behaviour,” says Haji Tawab Khan, vice president of Karachi Transporters’ Ittehad.

Khan accuses the government of being unfair to the transporters. He says that they have published ads in newspapers and also put them up in vehicles to persuade the passengers to take precautions. “This is all we can do. We cannot provide every passenger with a mask. It is the government’s responsibility,” he says.

He says transporters are already having a hard time. "A vehicle requires maintenance that costs up to Rs 80,000 before it can hit the road again. These vehicles have caught rust, their parts are jammed and tires have worn out during the lockdown. There is not enough return from daily operations."

He also says there is a dearth of drivers, conductors and mechanics. Since they are daily wagers, many have either returned to their hometowns or have switched to other professions. “Plus, trips are not making enough money to cover the operational costs. So the less vehicles we ply, the less losses we incur,” he says.

Rab Nawaz is the owner of Marwat Coach, which runs on one of the busiest routes, connecting working class neighbourhoods to industrial areas and city centre. He says each trip costs Rs 7,000 to Rs 8,000 and their earnings these days are nearly the same.

"Before the lockdown, there were 135 coaches operating on our route. Now there are around 75. All these are operating on diesel oil because running the vehicles on CNG is costlier," says Nawaz adding: "We are running the operations just to facilitate the people who travel to work."

The writer is a reporter for The News in Karachi