• Urbanisation has its downside

• Pakistan has highest annual deforestation rate in Asia

• Endangering Pakistan's environment

• S-III land portion allotted to MPAs’ housing society

• Militancy and education

• Development indexes

• CNG Bus Pilot Project awaiting revival

POPULATION figures cited in the recently released Pakistan Economic Survey have thrown up certain characteristics that may be helpful in putting some kind of context over what may appear at the first sight to be random numbers.

To begin with, Pakistan’s rate of urbanisation is on the rise, with more than half of the country’s urban population based in a cluster of eight cities: Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Multan, Hyderabad, Peshawar, Islamabad and Quetta.

The mass in these eight cities represents 36 per cent of the national population, which makes Pakistan the most urbanised country in the whole of South Asia; the closest being Bhutan with 34 per cent, India with 29 per cent and Bangladesh with 27 per cent.

Interestingly, the pace at which this phenomenon has materialised has been much quicker than what was estimated earlier. A strategy paper done on Pakistan by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) a decade ago, for instance, had used the national census data of 1972, 1981 and 1998 and predicted that the going by that trend “the total urban population in Pakistan will have grown by approximately 35 million in 2015.”

With a million more people already having moved over to the urban side of the demographic divide and as many as five years still to go; the pace has certainly beaten experts in terms of medium-term prediction. According to the latest estimate of the Economic Survey, going by the current rate, more than half of the population will be living in urban areas by 2030.

This rural-to-urban migration is indicative of the increasing lack of opportunities to make a living through traditional means like agriculture, livestock, dairy farming etc. For a country that has prised itself as an ‘agriculture economy’ for long, this is a significant shift. According to the Economic Survey, the urban population has increased over seven-fold in almost six decades, while the total population has risen four-fold in the same period. 

Put together, the two pieces of data show that moving beyond agriculture has been a trend in society for some time, but has picked up pace in recent years owing to a host of problems in the traditional sectors. 

The majority of those on the move, as could be only expected, belong to the poor segments of society. The challenge faced, as such, is that of identifying and generating more resources of food, clothing, shelter, employment, and the human resource development of education, health, population welfare, and water supply and sanitation to satisfy this new demand while continuing to improve the urban conditions in which the existing population currently lives.

The ADB report had noted a decade earlier that it was going to be a massive challenge. “Current issues concerning good governance and the provision of effective urban services are encapsulated in a lack of coordination among the large number of government agencies and a reluctance to implement policies and actions identified as necessary by numerous studies carried out during the past decade. Others issues relevant to the urban scene include the limitations of access to affordable land, the lack of revenue generation and the requirement to strengthen the capacity of local government institutions,” it had noted while stressing the need to focus on “infrastructure, housing, social and municipal services, with supporting policy, finance and institutional components”.

Not much having been done on those key fronts, the situation today is a town-planner’s nightmare and nowhere it is more evident than in the biggest urban centre of the country.

As could be expected, Karachi stands apart within the cluster of eight destinations that are playing host to these internal immigrants. While the seven cities have an average population growth rate of three per cent, Karachi has the highest of five per cent. And this largely explains why the metropolis is fast becoming an almost unmanageable commodity in most respects.

The survey itself has noticed that more than the city’s birth rate, the increase in numbers “is attributed mainly to migration from rural areas, with an estimated 45,000 people coming to the city every month from various parts of the country”. With such a massive influx, the demographic balance of the city is under serious pressure and so is its administrative machinery. The worrying part is the survey’s estimate that the trend is most likely to continue in the same vein over the next decade.

Already, Pakistan is the sixth most populous country of the world, with an estimated population of just a shade below 170 million at the end of June 2009. With an annual growth rate of 2.05 per cent, the country is expected – or rather feared – to go two steps higher on the ladder, becoming the fourth most populous country on the planet by the year 2050. 

Over the next decade alone, the population is set to cross the 200 million mark, and half of them – a good 100 million – will be settled in urban areas. According to figures posted on the website of the City District Government Karachi (CDGK), the metropolis already had in its fold “approximately 18 million” people – 4.115 persons per square kilometre – in the year 2007. Going by its five per cent per annum increase, Karachi will have another million added by 2020.

The pressure on infrastructure and social services will be tremendous, but even worse will be polarisation, with rival factions fighting over scarce resources. For the business community, this is what represents the most dreadful element in the whole demographic scenario of the country.

(By Humair Ishtiaq, Dawn-13, 28/06/2010)

The WWF report, which is being launched on Friday, warns that if the current deforestation rate of 2.1 per cent and trend of land conversion from forest to other uses is not checked, the country will not be able to meet its international commitments under the Millennium Development Goals to increase its forest cover from 2.5 per cent to six per cent by 2015. 

The report says that more than 61,000 hectares (approx. over 151,500 acres) of forest land have been converted to non-forest use in the country since its inception. 

The urgent measures recommended to the relevant authorities to curb the negative trend are immediate placement of a ban on forest land conversions, commercial harvesting and allotments; spread of awareness among lawmakers for proper legislation to restrict land conversions; and recovery of forest land from encroachers and its subsequent reforestation. 

In extremely important cases where conversion of forest lands becomes unavoidable, necessary provisions in the law must be made for compensatory forestation on twice the land being converted / allotted, the report recommends. 

Mangroves depletion on the top 

Over 4.242 million hectares in the country were forest land in 1992. However, it declined to 3.44 million hectares by 2001, the report says. 

The highest rate of deforestation has been found in the Indus delta mangroves, which has depleted at a rate of around 2.3 per cent, while the coniferous forest depleted at 1.99 per cent and ravine forests at 0.23 per cent. 

The WWF report says that over 99,711 acres of forest land in Punjab and 27,874-acre forests in Sindh have been converted to non-forest uses. In this regard, it says, the beneficiaries remain some government departments, politicians and other influential people having close contact with respective governments. 

A province-wise breakdown of forest land converted to other uses shows that Punjab tops the list with conversion of 99,711 acres, followed by Sindh with 27,874 acres, Balochistan with 13,693 acres, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 9,692 acres, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir with only 577 acres. This way the WWF tally of forest land conversion becomes 151,548 acres. 

Beneficiaries 

While forest lands have been given to various government departments, some civilians and non-government/commercial organisations also have got the forest land allotted in their name in an exchange. 

Some of the beneficiaries in Sindh include Pir Syed Shah Mardan Shah, Pir S. Sibghatullah Rashdi, Pir Syed Nadir Ali Shah, Abdullah Fakir, Kamat Fakir, Syed Mohammad Qaim Shah, Ghulam Nabi, Ghluam Rasool and Abdullah Sanjarani, Chaudhry Mohammad Ashraf and Ghulam Haider Ghalio. 

The government and private organisations having got the forest land in and around Karachi include the Defence Housing Authority, which has been provided with the largest chunk of over 11,500 acres, the city district government of Karachi for garbage dump, Sir Syed University of Engineering and Technology, Barrette Hodgson Education Institution, Dawood College of Engineering and Technology, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology, Aga Khan University, Sindh Madressah, and Indus Valley School of Arts and Architecture. 

In Punjab, the people and organisations having obtained the forest land include H. Syed Mohammad Ishaq, Malik Khalid for chairlift in Bansra Gali, Brig Mohammad Aslam Khan for Shangrila Hotel in Murree, Pearl Continental Hotel in Bhurban, Redco for hotel in Bhurban, Youths Hostel in Bhurban, Zafar Iqbal for houses in Murree, for chairlift in Patriata, InstaPhone, Journalists Housing Colony, and Punjab Government Servants Housing Foundation. 

In Balochistan, a CNG company and SOS children’s village have been given forest land in Quetta. 

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, beneficiaries include Mohammad Pervaiz Khan and PMA hut in Naran; Pakistan Youth Hostel in Sharan, Hotel Pine Park Complex in Shogran.

(By Bhagwandas, Dawn-13, 25/06/2010)

Pakistan is on the brink of an environmental disaster with rising temperatures each year that threaten the country's natural resources. In the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2009-10, released just a before a day before the Federal Budget was presented in the parliament, it clearly stated that due to global climate change and the adverse effects it has on Pakistan,a lot more needs to be done. It emphatically pointed out that the negative impact of climate change is proportionally linked to levels of poverty in Pakistan. According to the report:

"Poverty is the main impediment in dealing with environment related problems [sic]. There is an increasing demand on the already depleting natural resource base of the country. Since poor are directly dependent on livelihoods ... poverty combined with a rapidly increasing population and growing urbanisation is leading to [an] intense pressure on the environment." 

 
Pakistan was ranked twenty-nine by the Climate Change Vulnerability Index (CCVI) as compared to India's rank of fifty-six. The CCVI uses fifty 'smart indicators' that are divided under sub-heads, such as Biodiversity, Water, Desertification, Agriculture and Fisheries, Climate Change and Human Health Aspects, that help understand each country's vulnerability to climate change and its effects. The lower the number is on the index, the higher risk the country faces, which essentially means that Pakistan has been declared a high risk according to the index.

 
Further, the survey report added that “during the last century, average annual temperature over Pakistan increased by 0.6 °C, in agreement with the global trend, with the temperature increase over northern Pakistan being higher than over southern Pakistan (0.8 °C versus 0.5 °C)."

 
An ominous sign indeed. The report goes on to state that:

"If the situation goes continues it is projected that climate change will increase the variability of monsoon rains and enhance the frequency and severity of extreme events like floods and droughts. It is particularly so for Pakistan because climate change is posing a direct threat to its water security, food security and energy security ... that the average temperature over Pakistan will increase in the range 1.3 - 1.5 °C by 2020s. 2.5 - 2.8 °C by 2050s, and 3.9 - 4.4 °C by 2080s, corresponding to an increase in average global surface temperature by 2.8 - 3.4 °C by the turn of the twenty-first century.” 

 
The weather in Pakistan is normally mild in the month of April, but this year some parts of the country - especially the southern region - experienced extreme temperatures of over 50 °C. "Summer has come early this year, deviating from the pattern of the past few years," says a meteorologist from the Meteorological rological Department, Karachi.

 
But there is some good news for Pakistan. Although the emission of greenhouse gases (mainly resulting from the use of fossil fuel) has become a worldwide concern, Pakistan accounts for only about 0.8% of the total global greenhouse gas emissions which puts it at one hundred and thirty-fifth among the world ranking of countries on the basis of their per capita emissions. But this still doesn't mean that we won't be affected by climate change. 

Responding to a question regarding the drastic decrease in the budget environment-related project, a high rank official from the Federal Ministry of Environment stated that, “It’s not good. We won't have enough in the budget to protect the environment and since climate change is so rapid, we will not be equipped to meet the challenges in the future."

“Due to the serious threats to our environment and natural resources it is time to invest more in its protection," said Mahmood Akhtar Cheema, head of International Union for the Conservation of NatureIUCN, Islamabad. When asked about the cut in the federal budget, he stated: "The government knows about the state of environment in the country, we hope they take the current situation and [problems] into consideration."

(By Mukhtar Azad, Dawn-13, 11/06/2010)

Around 150 acres which were initially earmarked for the establishment of a major component of the Rs13.5 billion Greater Karachi Sewerage Plan — better known as S-III — has been allotted to a cooperative housing society whose most members are provincial lawmakers, Dawn has learnt. 

Sources in the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board told Dawn that the S-III project, for which the federal and Sindh governments had released Rs375 million so far, would be delayed further as 150 acres near Pakistan Refinery Limited (PRL) earmarked for setting up a new 200mgd sewage treatment plant in Korangi was being allotted to the Ghaggar Cooperative Housing Society.Senior KWSB officials claimed that the Sindh chief minister yielding to the pressure of some influential MPAs ordered the allotment of the land in question to the cooperative society. 

They said that if the decision was not revoked it would not only nearly end the S-III project, but would also put the Combined Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) in jeopardy as the latter was also proposed to be set up on the same land. 

The S-III project is aimed at saving the city’s beaches and marine population from the hazards of pollution being caused due to the disposal of 411mgd untreated sewage into the Arabian Sea. Of the total 472mgd sewage being produced in the city, only 13 per cent raw sewage, which comes to a mere 61mgd, is being treated while the remaining 411mgd untreated sewage is being dumped into the sea. The federal and the Sindh governments and the Karachi Port Trust jointly financed the project, which was scheduled to begin in July and accomplished in four years. 

Dawn contacted a senior leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, MPA Dr Sikandar Mandhro, who is looking after the affairs of the Ghaggar Cooperative Housing Society, to know whether the society was being allotted land in the vicinity of the PRL, which was earmarked for the S-III project, he said: “I cannot say specifically if the land for which the society has applied falls in the periphery of the PRL or not unless its demarcation work was accomplished”. 

About the society’s composition, he said that most of its members are MPAs and it was a multi-purpose cooperative society. According to the sources, initially 465 acres were earmarked in Korangi near PRL for setting up a 200mgd sewage treatment plant and the CETP for the industrial areas of Korangi and Landhi. In 2006, 150 acres were allotted to the Sindh Civil Servants Cooperative Housing Society, 49 acres were allotted to establish schools, another major chunk of the land was allotted to a private party for setting up an aero club and now another 150 acres have been allotted to the Ghaggar Cooperative Housing Society, thus making it impossible to set up the S-III’s major component in Korangi. 

The KWSB, the sources added, had acquired the possession of the land in 1992 through the then deputy commissioner of defunct district East. The sources said that although the Sindh Board of Revenue had suggested to the government to allot land to the Ghaggar Cooperative Housing Society at some other place, the MPAs who are members of the society wanted the land in question due to its location near the sea. They said that it was beyond one’s comprehension as to how the land, which is located adjacent to the PRL, was being allotted for residential purposes when the PRL had earlier cautioned that except for industrial units, there should be no residential places within a radius of 500 metres of the refinery owing to the obnoxious gases emitted by its chimneys. 

Admitting that the S-III project had already been delayed by two years since its approval by Ecnec in September 2007 and the administrative approval accorded by the Sindh government in Sept 2008, sources said that the revenue department of the city government and the BoR were delaying the matter of allotting 50 acres of land required for setting up another component of S-III (a 50mgd new sewage treatment plant) at Sohrab Goth/North Karachi despite the directives of Sindh Chief Secretary Fazlur Rehman in this regard. The inordinate delay in initiating the project had already doubled the cost from Rs7,982 million to about Rs13.5 billion, the sources said, adding that the four-year-long project could not be undertaken as long as land required for setting up its major component of 200mgd new sewage treatment plant at Korangi and another of 50mgd new treatment plant at Sohrab Goth/North Karachi was not made available to the KWSB.

(By Azizullah Sharif, Dawn-13, 16/06/2010)

EDUCATION in Pakistan has again come under the spotlight. In a report released by the Brookings Institution in Washington recently, two staffers, Rebecca Winthrop and Corinne Graff, have investigated the role of madressahs and the school system in Pakistan in fuelling militancy in the country. 

This spurt of interest by westerners in our education can be explained in the light of the militancy spilling over across our borders and spurring terrorist attacks abroad. The fact is that our education system has for long been inculcating an extremist mindset among school- and university-going youth. 

The Brookings Institution states that the debate over seminaries and the mainstream education system “deserves close attention in policy circles given the domestic and international security stakes and the US pledge to triple economic assistance to Pakistan under the 2009 Kerry Lugar bill. For FY 2010, this pledge includes a total of $334.7m for education, of which $264.7m is for basic education”. 

Since the report Beyond Madrasas will obviously be used as a guideline by American policymakers when releasing aid to Pakistan, it is important that the assessment contained in the report should be correct if all the effort and funds to be invested are to create an impact. The authors are spot on when they identify the mainstream schooling system as also being a part of the problem apart from some madressahs. 

After all, as pointed out by Javed Hasan Aly, the author of the 2007 White Paper on Education, some religious parties that were “globally funded” have preached intolerance in educational institutions by having hardened ideologues infiltrate the ranks of the staff and students. Brookings fails to take note of it and of America’s past role in strengthening these parties for the ‘jihad’ in Afghanistan. 

The damage already done has to be undone, if it is not too late already. The report makes 13 recommendations. If implemented they should go a long way towards improving matters by making education more accessible and tailoring it to the job market. But will they be implemented? Brookings expresses considerable scepticism when it writes that the national education policy is “unlikely to translate into significant gains on the ground”. 

The problems I foresee are mainly in three interrelated areas. First is the performance of the teachers. It needs to be made clear that holding teachers accountable for their performance in the classroom, as the report recommends, should be the first priority. It is important to ensure that teachers attend school and play the role that has been assigned to them. 

That by itself will, however, not be enough. Pedagogic skills are so poor that teachers’ training is absolutely essential as the authors of the report also agree. That is the big challenge. The teachers’ knowledge of the subjects they teach is so inadequate that even if they are persuaded to attend school regularly they will find it difficult to deliver without upgrading their own education. Remember they are the products of a system that has been in a state of rot for at least four decades. 

The second issue is our failure to take a clear-cut stand on the language to be used as the medium of instruction. The aspirations of our policymakers — and also of a large number of parents — is that English be introduced as early as possible and this should also be the language of instruction. Market pressures and the quest for political power and social status have been allowed to reinforce the demand for English. 

But are the teachers qualified to teach in English? The Punjab government had a brainwave: teach them English in crash courses of two weeks. The British Council also pitched in and launched a programme to familiarise teachers with the language in 18 days. But obviously these efforts will prove to be futile. 

The Brookings experts also suggest that the students be taught critical thinking and schooling should have job relevance. An ideal proposal. But considering the profile of an average Pakistani student, one can well ask if he can be taught critical thinking if the education he receives is in English. It would probably be his first encounter with the language. In all likelihood he would be the first generation school-goer. His parents would know no English at all while his teacher’s proficiency in that language would be minimal. 

These features will encourage the culture of silence and rote learning in the classroom. In this scenario, can you really expect a child who hardly comprehends what he is taught to think critically in a ‘strange’ language in which he can hardly express himself? As for the madressahs, whether they teach militancy and violence or not, all of them indoctrinate their students and they do a thorough job of it. Language is their strongest tool. They use the mother tongue of their students to communicate. They teach Arabic but they do not teach in Arabic. 

The third challenge to be encountered is the approach to be adopted towards Islamic studies. The Brookings report advises the US to, “Leave Islam out of it,” since religion features too prominently in Pakistan’s culture. The authors of the report feel that questions concerning the role of Islam in school curricula should be left to Pakistanis to debate. A wise suggestion no doubt as foreign meddling will invite a reaction. But can we hope for good sense to prevail? Last year the education policy was delayed because the government wanted to add a chapter on Islam.

The only solution would be to use the teachers to teach a softer version of Islam as it used to be before the hardliners took over. If teachers have to motivate, mobilise and persuade, let them do it in a language they and their pupils know best. Love and tolerance are not taught from textbooks. 

As for English, by all means teach it but as a second language. Education can be made relevant for the market by teaching English as the language of inter-personal communication. Let the child do his critical thinking in his own tongue which will take him far in understanding the folly of militancy.

(By Zubeida Mustafa, Dawn-7, 07/07/2010)

HUMAN development is a significant component of the notion of development. Development that does not enhance the quality of individuals’ lives is incomplete in its essence. 

Renowned Indian economist Amartya Sen links the idea of development to freedoms. It is this human and social development that prepares the human capital which is vital for any society. The concept of human development underlines the areas of education and health. Highly developed countries have effective systems of education and health since they realise their significance. In Pakistan, however, we observe a narrow view of development as every government makes claims about economic development but completely ignores the areas of education and health. 

Since its birth, Pakistan has faced challenges in the education and health sectors, which it has not been able to overcome. At the governmental level there is merely lip service and no serious effort is made to bring about positive changes in people’s lives. Education, which is considered to have a close link and positive correlation with development, is dealt with in a casual manner. A number of policies in this regard were announced by different governments but they were not supported by the political will of the state. There were no effective inbuilt monitoring systems or accountability mechanisms. The result was that some heavily funded educational projects could not materialise. 

The seriousness with which the state regards this issue can be gauged by the fact that Pakistan’s allocation for education is the lowest in the region. The most recent allocation for education in Pakistan is 2.1 per cent of the GDP, which is less than Bangladesh (2.6 per cent), India (3.3) Iran (4.4), Nepal (3.2), Thailand (4.5), Malaysia (4.7) and Indonesia (3.3). This low allocation for education has resulted in Pakistan having the lowest literacy percentage in the region. The country’s current literacy rate is 57 per cent as compared to Sri Lanka (90 per cent), Malaysia (92.1), China (93.7), Vietnam (92.5) and Nepal (57.9). This low literacy rate contains further problems of rural/urban and male/female discrimination. In Pakistan, the male literacy rate is 69 per cent while that of females is only 45 per cent. The Gender Parity Index (GPI) is 0.64, which shows a sizeable gender gap. Similarly, there is a wide difference between the urban and rural areas of the country.

A number of schools remain in a miserable condition. According to statistics provided by the Economic Survey of Pakistan, “37.7 per cent schools up to elementary level are without boundary wall, 33.9 per cent without water facility, 37 per cent without latrines and around 60 per cent are without electricity.” This pathetic situation reflects the low priority our governments have assigned to social development in Pakistan. 

It is shocking to note that while other countries have been increasing budgetary allocations for education, in Pakistan we see a decline. In 2006-07 the allocation for education as a percentage of GDP was 2.5 per cent. It dropped in 2007-08 to 2.47 per cent, to 2.1 per cent in 2008-09 and two per cent in 2009-10. This is a highly disturbing trend. Yet even this low allocation is seldom fully utilised, mostly because of complex bureaucratic procedures and the lack of organisational capacity. Similarly, there is always scepticism about the appropriate use of funds. 

Health is another important aspect of human development. Like education, it is a much-ignored area in Pakistan. Instead of a rise in the allocation for the health sector, we see a decline during the past three years. In 2007-08 the health expenditure as a percentage of the GDP was 0.57. In 2008-09 it dropped to 0.56 and in 2009-10 fell even further to 0.54. Such a meagre amount being allocated for the important area of health is simply appalling. Some of the health indicators speak for themselves. In Pakistan, for example, the life expectancy rate is 66.5 per cent, the infant mortality rate per 1,000 is 65.1 per cent and the mortality rate for children under the age of five per 1,000 is 95.2 per cent. These problems are likely to be further aggravated by the high rate of population growth in the country. In 2009, the annual percentage population growth in Pakistan was 2.1, higher than any other country in the region: India 1.55, Sri Lanka 0.94, Bangladesh 1.29, Nepal 1.28 and China 0.66. 

The growing population and low budgetary allocations are perpetuating the miseries of the common people. According to figures quoted in the Economic Survey of Pakistan, in 2009-10 one doctor is available for every 1,183 individuals, one dentist for 16,914 individuals and one hospital bed for 11,592 individuals. Such insufficient healthcare facilities in modern times are simply embarrassing. This brief review of two important components of human development suggests that the situation in Pakistan is far from satisfactory. There is need to work on these fronts on an emergency basis. We have seen a number of policies, plans and projects fall prey to political interests and bureaucratic formalities. Basic education and health are the fundamental facilities a state is obliged to provide to its citizens. Claims of development remain incomplete and deceptive if there is no improvement in the lives of the people. Such qualitative improvement is closely linked with the quality of education and health indicators.

The writer is a professor and director of the Centre for Humanities and Social Sciences at the Lahore School of Economics and author of Rethinking Education in Pakistan. 

(By Dr. Shahid Siddiqui, Dawn-6, 05/07/2010)

City District Government Karachi (CDGK)’s Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Bus Pilot Project is yet to be revived.

A separate department was created under the aegis of the CNG Bus Pilot Project District Officer (DO) Muhammad Athar for that purpose and 75 buses were already plying the road on three different routes.

However, the financial crunch, non-release of funds collected from the e-ticketing system and internal politics brought the project to a halt.

Around 35 buses were parked at the terminus on the pretext of lack of required funds for procuring tyres; therefore, the Sindh government issued a cheque of Rs 7.20 million last week for the purchase of 300 tyres. The total price of those tyres was higher than the amount received from the provincial government; however, after negotiations with the DO, the tyre manufacturers agreed to sell 300 tyres for Rs 23,000 each.

Although the CNG buses have been installed with the new tyres, the operators have yet to agree to resume the operation because CDGK’s Finance and Planning Department has failed to settle their outstanding dues for five months worth Rs 52 million. The operators have demanded the CDGK to pay them at least two months’ dues before they could resume the operation. Besides that, the outstanding dues payable to the CNG filling stations have also accumulated to Rs 10 million and responding to the operators’ demand would not suffice to activate the suspended routes.

The Surjani to Korangi route was completely halted on June 3, causing tremendous problems for the commuters.

The revenue generated through e-ticketing was deposited in a centralised pool for meeting assorted needs, such as paying CNG filling stations’ owners and CNG bus operators.

However, the revenue was used for other needs, while Transport and Communication Department Executive District Officer (EDO) Iftikhar Qaimkhani could not release funds from the revenue pool.

Moreover, the EDO transferred the DO to another area, worsening the situation until the EDO had to annul his decision in a couple of days. It is pertinent to mention here that the subsidy on the CNG buses has been causing revenue loss, and it was decided to end the subsidy of Rs 7.5 million in the fiscal year beginning from July 1.

(DailyTimes-B1, 12/07/2010)