KARACHI – Advisor to Chief Minister Sindh, Sharmila Faruqui has stressed the need to allocate special funds for purchasing CNG buses only for women in Karachi.

Talking to a delegation of Aurat Foundation, she said that some time ago, to experience behaviour of bus drivers, conductors and male commuters, in the guise of a common woman, she personally travelled in buses/ coaches plying different roads in Karachi.

“I astonished that male passengers are boarded in female compartment where already women are sitting on their seats. Secondly, I found callous attitude of the drivers and conductors towards women commuters,” she recalled.

Sharmila maintained that she has visited a large number of countries including the US, England, France, Germany and Italy where she observed that woman passengers are given a special regard and they have not to experience a bad attitude towards them.

She suggested that both the Sindh government and the City District Government Karachi should allocate special funds for purchasing CNG buses to be used only for woman commuters. She elaborated that thousands of women in Karachi perform their jobs at government or private offices and they have to travel by buses to reach their offices.
There is no sufficient space for them in women compartment of the private transport while in many cases, male commuters are also boarded in their portion causing a great suffering to them, she noted.

She called upon the representative organisations of private transporters in Karachi to ensure that men should not be boarded in women portion of a bus. She raised a question why these so-called organizations make a hue and cry whenever the government increase petroleum prices in the line with international prices but on atrocity with women, they keep mum. She termed such attitude a dual policy.
Source: The Nation
Date:8/21/2009