The Sindh government has announced plans to launch a women-only Pink Taxi Scheme as part of its broader electric vehicle transport initiative, with Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon making the announcement during a session of the Sindh Assembly. The fleet of pink taxis will follow the model established by the existing Pink Scooter programme, which has already made Sindh one of the most active provincial governments in Pakistan in pursuing dedicated, women-centric transport solutions as part of a wider push toward electric mobility.
Memon said the government would share further details of the Pink Taxi Scheme in due course, including the scale of the fleet, the procurement model, and the operational framework under which the service would be delivered. The announcement builds on the momentum generated by the Pink Scooter programme, which has seen significant uptake since its launch. When the scooter scheme was first introduced, only 150 women held driving licences in the relevant categories, but Memon confirmed that approximately 25,000 women have since applied for licences, a dramatic increase that reflects both the appeal of the scheme and its role in encouraging women across Sindh to pursue legal road access. The minister stated unequivocally that if 100,000 women obtain licences, it remains the government’s responsibility to provide them with scooters, signalling that the programme will scale with demand rather than being capped at a fixed number of units.
Memon also addressed complaints that some women’s male relatives had been using scooters issued under the Pink Scooter Scheme, stating that authorities had issued directions to traffic police to act against men found riding vehicles distributed specifically under the women’s programme. The enforcement measure reflects the government’s intent to maintain the integrity of a scheme specifically designed to expand safe and independent mobility for women, ensuring that the benefits reach their intended recipients rather than being diverted into general household use by male family members.
The minister used the assembly session to also highlight Sindh’s broader achievements in sustainable transport, noting that the province was the first in Pakistan to introduce electric buses and that the Sindh Revenue Board had recorded 24 percent revenue growth compared to the Federal Board of Revenue’s 10 percent, underscoring the provincial government’s confidence in the financial sustainability of its transport and development agenda. The Pink Taxi Scheme, when launched, will extend Sindh’s electric vehicle public transport initiative into a new dimension of gender-sensitive mobility infrastructure, addressing the specific safety, comfort, and accessibility needs of women commuters in a province where public transport has historically been a challenging environment for female users.
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