Incredible utterance

Now the communications minister is blaming bus passengers for paying the arbitrarily increased fares without demur! The same minister made an extraordinary comment about journalists recently, suggesting that Rab go after them.

We don't understanding what the minister is trying to say by placing the blame at the doorstep of commuters. Is he suggesting they fight the transport operators while the transport ministry and the bus owners association play the mute spectator absolving themselves of any responsibility in the matter?

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Eid is only a few days away and people are anxious to go to their village homes to celebrate it. It's not a routine trip they are making, but one that they find themselves emotionally bound to be doing. Sadly, the minister, without showing an iota of sensitivity to the passengers' longings to celebrate the festival with their near and dear ones, is passing the buck of his failure on to the victims.

We demand to know what his ministry is doing to see that the fare chart it has stipulated is being adhered to. Isn't it their responsibility? And that is the issue here, not whether the passengers have failed to raise a wall of resistance against extortion in the name of selling tickets. The minister should have been aware of the helplessness of passengers in such situations.

The way we look at it, our policy makers will have to be more circumspect before making utterances on what the public regard as their pressing needs that must be met with greater sensitivity from people in power.