Abdul Hakeem Mohmand
PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has failed to launch the Pink Bus service in the province in last more than two years despite several inaugurations of the project by the incumbent and previous Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)’s government.
In early 2018, the Japanese government had provided the KP government 1.79 million dollars for a project designed for safe transportation of women and children in cities. The project was planned to be launched with the technical implementing partnership of United Nations Office for Project Services and UN Women.
In May 2018, the government had bought 14 pink buses which were parked in the open at a bus stand in the city’s Chamkani locality. Since the buses have not seen the road till this day, most of their parts had almost started to crumble. Since its first inauguration by former Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, the project was inaugurated three times by other officials, including Governor Shah Farman and Speaker KP Assembly Mushtaq Ghani. The authorities, however, failed to formally start it so far.
The project was initially planned for Peshawar but following the commencement of BRT project in the provincial capital, it was diverted to Mardan and Abbottabad.
“The service could not take a start due to bureaucratic hurdles between the KP transport authority and the concerned contractor,” an official of Trans-Peshawar Project told this scribe.
In a desperate attempt to launch the project, the KP government has issued another tender for its lease.
The aim of this project was to ensure safe, cheap and harassment-free travel for women, given that harassment of women in public transport has become a common practice across the country.
An official associated with the Pink Bus service said that it is very difficult for the project to succeed in cities like Mardan and Abbotabad as women in these areas are mostly accompanied by their male family members during their travel. He said that the government was now considering a plan to allow families to travel in the bus, whenever its operation sees light of the day.
