KARACHI: Most of public transport remained off the roads in Karachi due to two-day long closure of CNG stations (Friday and Saturday) which caused immense difficulties for 90 percent commuters.
In the absence of most of public transport, people going to and from workplaces had no choice but to travel on foot-boards and even on rooftops of heavily crowded buses and minibuses, risking their lives.
A huge rush of male and female commuters was seen at various bus stops in the city. Drivers of rickshaws and taxis had a field day on Saturday as they charged exorbitant fares from their passengers. It has become a regular practice that whenever CNG stations remained closed, owners of buses and minibuses who have got their vehicles converted into CNG did not bring their vehicles on roads, resulting into hardships to commuters.
Unchecked overloading in buses not only caused inconvenience to passengers, but it was also a major source of harassment of women as whenever buses and minibuses are overloaded, their drivers either did not stop their vehicles for women or force them to travel along male passengers in mini female compartments having limited pace and seats.
