It seems the Lahore Transport Company (LTC) has fallen victim to a ‘tug-of-war’ between its Chairman Dr. Shahid Siddique and Chief Executive Officer Maryam Khawar as the former has served a show cause notice on the latter on charges of “not providing required records.”
Maryam Khawar, however, has written to the Punjab Transport secretary, dispelling all the allegations as baseless.
According to sources, the power struggle in LTC has started affecting the performance of the company, which was expected to be revamped by the new team.
LTC Chairman Dr Shahid Siddique has reportedly issued a show cause to the CEO for inappropriate behavior. According to the chairman, Maryam Khawar has illegally installed audio recording devices in the room of the chairman and vice chairman.
The show cause notice further alleged that despite instructions to provide various records, Maryam Khawar acted reluctantly and did not provide the records. LTC Chairman Dr. Shahid said that the attitude of LTC CEO Maryam Khawar was also inappropriate.
When the show cause notice was issued, the CEO Lahore Transport Company informed the Secretary Transport about all the issues in a letter and said that the allegations against her were baseless.
She claimed that the chairman has no authority to issue show cause, harass her and the staff. “What is happening is that harassment is affecting the company’s performance”, she wrote in the letter.
Amid this struggle for power, the LTC could not be made fully operational so far, although the PTI government after coming into power, has promised to provide cheap and quality public transport system to the masses. With the closure of 19 routes, the citizens have sharply criticized the rulers.
The LTC was established in 2009 by the PML-N government with the aim of planning and facilitating a high quality, safe, efficient, environment-friendly and affordable urban transport in the provincial capital. During 2017, the number of buses decreased and then gradually the buses disappeared during 2019 and finally, the service closed entirely.
The LTC has been controversial and unprofitable since its inception. Investigations carried out by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) revealed cases of mega corruption within the company in relation to the import of Chinese CNG buses as well as in subsidy payments, which marred its reputation.
The company’s performance has been particularly declining for the past two years.
The buses used to offer a transport option to people at subsidised rates and due to the closure of the service, those who used to travel using these buses frequently are suffering and many people have lost their jobs.
