Karachi:Practical ban of the entry of long route buses has been awaited for long as provincial transport department, district administration, police and other related departments are not interested to restrict the long route buses to their officially-designated terminals at M-9 and RCD highway.
Free entry of long buses in Karachi despite completion and functionalization of modern government-run bus terminals at Suhrab Goth and Saeedabad is not only aggravating noise and air pollution besides traffic jams, but it also may be a court contempt as the Sindh High Court in 2006 has banned entry of all inter-city buses whose terminals have already been constructed.
A Division Bench comprising the then Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Faisal Arab, in an interim order in a petition moved by Advocate Islam Husain had observed that appropriate directives would be issued by the authorities concerned to ensure that the vehicles are parked at the new terminals and no passengers are picked or dropped at the old stands in the congested areas of the city.
However, despite passage of 13 long years the government of Sindh, its transport department, police and KMC have failed to shift illegal bus terminals of long routes buses from residential areas of the city, especially Saddar, where dozens of illegal terminals (lorry addas) of long route buses run with full impunity and where a large number of long routes buses could be seen parked at any hour of the day.
The issue of traffic jams in the city and menace of illegal bus terminals could be resolved if the authorities concerned ban entry of the long routes buses in the city, respecting the directives of the Honorable Sindh High Court division bench in November 2006.