Students of suburbs facing transport problems

Sohail Rashid

Students coming to the twin cities from suburbs have to face worst transport problems and endanger their lives for reaching their academic institutions on time by travelling on rooftops of buses and wagons.

A large number of students from Kallar Syedan, Rawat, Kahuta, Sihala and Bhara Kahu are studying in colleges and universities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. These students have no proper transport facility and they have no option but to travel in public service vehicles. During rush hours, they have to travel on rooftops of buses and wagons. Many students have lost their lives in road accidents while several sustained severe injuries, but the problem is still intact.

Yasir Raza is a student of a government college in Rawalpindi. He daily commutes between Kallar Syedan and Rawalpindi. He said that in winter it becomes more difficult to travel early in the morning on the rooftop of a bus. “During two years of college, I have never travelled by sitting on a seat in a wagon or a bus. Every day I have to travel by standing on the footrest of the bus,” he told INFN.

“We have to travel in overloaded buses, which is a violation of traffic laws, but as we have no other option we have to do it,” said Mobeen Razaq, another student from Rawat. He said that they had staged protests several times for a proper transport system, but no one took notice of their problem. “Our problem can easily be solved by allotting two or three buses on every route,” said Shakeel Ahmad, another student.

“Students are the most important segment of society and they should be provided with all basic facilities. But here in Pakistan, we have a different trend where no one cares even about our lives,” Zeeshan Mirza, a student, said in a sarcastic tone.