Staff Report
RAWALPINDI: In the aftermath of the deadly bus accident near Kallar Kahar, which claimed 13 lives and left more than 30 people injured, a crim-inal complaint has been filed against the bus driver and its owner, among others, it emerged on Sunday.
Saturday, a bus veered off the Islamabad-Lahore Motorway into the oppo-site lane and overturned near Kallar Kahar.
The first information report (FIR) was filed on Saturday evening by Motor-way Police Officer Muhammad Bilal at the Kallar Kahar police station.
It names the bus driver, bus owner, manager of the Rawalpindi station (from where the bus departed), manager of the bus company’s station and the motor vehicle examiner as those who are responsible for the accident.
It invokes sections 322 (punishment for qatl-bis-sabab), 337G (punishment for hurt by rash or negligent driving), 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees) and 109 (punishment of abetment if the act abetted committed In consequence and where no express provision is made for its punishment) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
In his complaint, the official stated he was performing his routine duty at N-225 when at around 3:14pm, he received an alert that a bus — with regis-tered number BSG-055 and belonging to the Shalimar Transport Service — was met with an accident.
Upon reaching the location, he saw that the bus driver, Farhat Abbas Shah, had “lost control of the bus”, due to which it “broke the crash barrier” and overturned, the complainant added.
Bilal further said that a total of 13 people were killed in the accident, out of which five had died on the spot and were yet to be identified.
The FIR stated that 32 others were injured, who were then taken to the Kal-lar Kahar Trauma Centre via ambulances belonging to Rescue 1122, Has-col Petroleum and the Frontier Works Organisation.
The complainant went on to say that upon inquiring, the survivors alleged the bus was “not fully fit” when it was departing the Rawalpindi bus station.
The FIR quoted them as saying that they informed the driver; the bus own-er; and the Rawalpindi station manager, about the vehicle’s “fault”. Howev-er, the men told the driver that the bus was fit to be driven, the FIR added.
Regardless, the complaint went on to state that the driver was also to be held responsible for the accident as the bus was not running in a fit condi-tion even when on its way to Islamabad.
“This accident occurred due to the above-mentioned driver’s negligence, carelessness and speeding, as well as due to driving the vehicle at the be-hest of the bus owner and the station manager,” the FIR states.
Bilal also held the bus company’s officials responsible as they failed to conduct appropriate checks on the bus’ condition and let it function.
As the main manager of the Shalimar company’s main bus station at Jhang and the motor vehicle examiner are also involved in this incident, action should be taken against them as well, the complaint said.
According to the FIR, Arooj, Fatima, Rohan, Shayan, Hadia, Ameer Bibi, Maneesa Bibi and Imran are among the dead along with five others who are yet to be identified.
