Iqra Hameed a girl traveling in Karachi recently faced a terrible experience with uber service. As an Uber driver had snatched two of her phones and ran away. This girl wrote about this story on her Facebook newsfeed and it is from there that the case got into limelight.
It was earlier this month that Iqra had booked an Uber ride. We all know for a known fact that in the past couple of years uber and careem have known to become one of the safest and secure mediums of traveling especially for women. These days’ uber services are considered a convenient alternative for all other public transport mediums. While on this ride with a driver named Aashiq Iqra has no idea what was going to happen. While on their way to the destination the driver snatched two of her latest phones and kicked her out of the car. This literally took Iqra to a shock since uber is considered as one of the safest public rides in Pakistan.
Iqras immediate action was to consult uber authorities to look into the matter; despite such a big issue uber management seemed to be at ease with everything and claimed that they cannot do anything unless an FIR is launched. As iqra was in Karachi for some purpose it was not an easy task to go through all of this in such a limited time period. But seeing no other option Iqra was determined to find the culprits she went out of the way and this outrageous girl filed an FIR against the driver. Luckily enough the driver was soon taken into custody and the bail was also rejected by the JM east Imam Zaidi. Both of Iqras phones shall soon be returned to her which are now in the custody of the court.
This is not the only case reported, in the past few months there are numerous robbery and harassment cases have occurred in uber. However, most of these are gone unreported and no legal actions are taken against such predators. It’s also a pity to realize that uber being such reputed management failed to live up to the expectations as they have claimed time and again that there is a very strict background check conducted for their drivers. Such claims make people have faith in the credibility of such services and if proven false one must take actions against this to help expose the real face of such predators.
Applause for Iqra Hammed who finally stood up and became a stepping stone for many others facing similar incidents. This was much needed.
Muhammad Usman Awan is a Blogger and Social Entrepreneur who founded first Anti Harassment Awareness Campaign “Stop Harassment Now”. The Purpose of this campaign is to empower and educate our Girls and Working Women against Harassment.
