Sindh’s Bus Terminals Left At The Mercy of Encroachment Mafia

KARACHI: As the government turns a blind eye, the bus stands across Sindh have become a haven for encroachment mafia which has illegally occupied many of them without fearing action. A number of bus stands across the province have either been occupied completely or partially such that there is no sign left that there once existed a bus terminal.

Meanwhile, the government’s presence is hardly seen as soon as a passenger enters the premises of a terminal and they are completely left at the mercy of private transporters who regulate operations there. The bus drivers are forced to pay backhanders and extortion to the mafia as well as the police to secure a place for parking their vehicles.It has been learnt through surveys conducted by News360 that most of the spaces designated for bus stands in Sindh have been encroached either by the government offices or by private businesses.

Sources said that the provincial government failed to retrieve possessions of several bus terminal despite the issue was raised before it several times. Explaining non-commencement of action, sources said that the mafia members had the backing of some elements from the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) as well as the police.

Back in 2018, the Sindh transport department wrote letters to deputy commissioners (DCs), requesting them to clear bus stands of encroachments. However, the applications were either not considered or turned down on different pretexts, likely due to alleged collusion between the mafia and those in power.It was disclosed that a large number of bus stands across Sindh were running privately now. There is no maintained record of where the collected tax goes. Owing to this, the provincial government suffers a loss of millions of rupees due to its negligence.

Sindh Transport Minister Owais Shah iterated that there would be action against the transport mafia very soon. He added that bus stands in Korangi in Karachi have already been recovered.

Despite the claims by the minister, there are still several occupied bus stands in different cities of Sindh. The terminal located in Wehdat Colony in Hyderabad has been replaced by government buildings while the bus stand in the Saddar area of Karachi has been occupied by a sprawl of shops.

The bus stands in Thatta and Mirpurkhas cities have been under seizure of local officials of the ruling party.

Similarly, the bus stands sites in Sukkar, Dadu, and Khairpur have been encroached by high-ups in the local administration while one in Moro is currently occupied by the Union Council (UC).