Police teams at bus stops issue challan tickets, fines to overcharging transporters
The federal capital on Saturday witnessed long queues of cars, vans and buses on their way out of Islamabad as Eid-al-Fitr is only one day way.
A large number of families and passengers are leaving Islamabad to celebrate the upcoming festival with their families.
Like every year, the city has already started giving a look of deserted town with hundreds and thousands going away.
Similarly, one could see a mad rush at the bus stations in Rawalpindi and Islamabad for instance, No.26, Mandi Morr, Faizabad and Karachi Company.
Meanwhile, the transporters and owners of the public transports are taking undue advantage of this mass exit and overcharging the passengers.
Taking notice of this overcharging, the City Traffic Officer (CTO) constituted a team of the police officers to make sure no passenger is made to pay more than the official rate for travel.
The special teams are stationed at al the bus stops to oversee the smooth flow of traffic and also to stop the transporters from overcharging.
A number of traffic challans and fines were also imposed and the transporters were directed to return the additional fare they charged from the passengers.
Since Friday was the last working day ahead of Eid, a huge number of the non-native residents who work in large public and private sectors rushed to the city bus terminals near No.26 and other points immediately after the Friday prayers with a bid to board the transport for reaching their cities and towns to join their loved ones to celebrate Eid.
“I tried hard but couldn’t get tickets for Faisalabad.
Now they (the reservation clerks) are asking me to wait for the next bus since tickets for the bus ready for departure have been sold,” said a passenger while talking to Pakistan Observer at the city bus terminal.
His sole worry was whether he would be able to get the ticket for next bus or not.
The similar situation was seen at bus terminals near Mandi Morr which is considered hub of vehicles moving all over the country.
There too a lot of passengers were found making efforts to get tickets for their native towns.
According to an official on duty at the Mandi Morr bus station, all buses departed from Pindi to Karachi and other major cities were jam-packed as the passengers got their tickets booked in advance for Eid.
The passengers were more or less happy with the arrangements and the strict check being maintained by the capital police department.
Contrary to that little arrangement was made for the passengers at the Rawalpindi Railway Station.
Unlike previous years, no special Eid train was organized to leave from the Pindi railway station to the various cities and towns inside the country.
Despite the fact that five special trains have been launched by the government on Eid-al-Fitr, no such service has been announced for passengers going to their hometowns from Rawalpindi.
Ironically, Hanif Abbasi Minister for Railway hails from Rawalpindi but his city was not among the ones from where the special trains left for the inside destinations.
“This is very disturbing and painful as I am travelling with a large family, 5 children, wife and mother, and was expecting a special train that could take me to my hometown near Sahiwal but our own railway minister didn’t pay attention to that,” said Zahoor Ali a resident of Rawalpindi.
The momentum of passengers leaving from Pindi and Islamabad will continue today (Sunday) as most probably Eid will be celebrated tomorrow i.e.Monday.
