On Tuesday morning conductors of minibuses and coaches on many routes were charging extra fare, with the excuse that have yet to receive the government lists of revised fares. Though the cut in fare of minibuses and coaches in Karachi is nominal but the profit hungry transporters are bent to exploit the commuters as they know nobody would take action against them.

The leaders of transporters’ bodies are asking commuters not to pay the extra fare, but at the same time these bus transporters having huge fleets of minibuses and coaches are not directing their conductor to behave with commuters and charge fares as per the government lists.

In Karachi there is no agency, department or forum to protect the rights of commuters. The commuters of the city are amongst the most exploited groups. They are hoodwinked to pay fares based on the use of costly diesel while the minibuses they travel are actually run of cheap compressed natural gas. The regional transport authority is not ready to reassess the bus fare on the basis on CNG and issue rationalized fare lists.

Public transport sector plays a vital role in socio-economic development of any urban city and the dream of a modern Karachi could not be materialized till it gets rid of the medieval mode of public transport. It is the responsibility of the major ruling parties of Karachi, Pakistan Peoples’ Party-Parliamentarian (PPP-P) and Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), to give a serious consideration to the sensitive public transport issue of Karachi in the remaining few months of their tenure, as the commuters are also voters who keenly observe that the parties getting vote from them sincerely safeguard their rights or not.