Road transportation for all was chosen with a mind set that appears to have believed that Pakistan was like the US - a developed and prosperous country. The fact of the matter is that the government also went to the length of relying on individual road transport in cities in an impoverished underdeveloped country where there are neither enough roads and nor is the government able to provide adequate public transportation to urban population at an affordable cost. And this was at a time when the society was characterised by an unending trek to cities and town. Already in middle 1960s over 40 per cent of Pakistanis were living in cities and towns, and the trend has been accelerating since. Some 60 per cent or more of Pakistanis now live in urban centres.
Most bigger cities require efficient and adequate public transport systems.
This is an item that the government has singularly failed to provide or arrange through private sector. The conditions in cities have become insufferable through pollution. But far more insufferable is that state of economy as a result of high imports of oil, automobiles, their spares and road building materials. These ideas should not be aired only at times when prices of petroleum shoot up, to be forgotten when they go down. Pakistan economy badly needs an adequate policy for the transportation of goods as well as passengers.