Uber driver in Karachi arrested for demanding money from a female customer

An Uber driver from Karachi was arrested on Sunday for demanding money from a female customer for returning her lost phone.

According to details, the female customer had taken an Uber ride to Gulshan Iqbal, Karachi on Sunday. However, she forgot her phone in the car and realized it after the ride was over. When the woman’s brother, Hunain Ali contacted the driver to return the phone, the driver refused and demanded that he will return the mobile phone only if they pay him Rs 10,000.

Following the incident, the woman with her brother went to the Gulshan Iqbal Police station and filed a complaint against the uber driver. Upon informing the Police station, the SSP took immediate notice of this incident and subsequently directed a special police party to arrest the Uber-driver. The police then traced the driver and found him in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal area, the driver was arrested and his car was taken into custody for further investigation. The woman also informed Uber about the driver via an email.

Careem, UBER and a brief recap of harassment

Back in 2016, Sana Yousaf Ayub, a woman from Karachi was subjected to harassment and continuous threats by an Uber driver. The driver harassed and threatened the woman of dire consequences. Similarly, in October 2018, an Uber driver was arrested for harassing a female medical student to such an extent that the student jumped out of the moving car.

Careem in a similar manner has also been subjected to criticism and scrutiny over the unethical and unprofessional behavior of their drivers. In 2016, Careem faced a severe backlash from social media over the harassment of girl from Lahore by a Careem driver. Careem in response released a statement where they acknowledged that the security of their customer was of utmost importance.

“At Careem, Safety and security of our customers is a topmost concern. Daily 1000s of customers use Careem in Pakistan, 40% of which are women, and we ensure safe and secure transportation services. We apologize for such untoward incident with our customer and will thoroughly investigate and take immediate action. We have already contacted the publisher to share the details of the captain and the customer so that immediate action can be taken and the customer can be assured of our promise of Safe and Secure transportation for all.”

It should be mentioned that the major criticism faced by these ride-hailing services have been regarding the unprofessional and unethical behavior of their drivers. Many people on social media platforms have criticized these companies that their drivers are not trained and that there is no prior background security check over these drivers.

Uber and Careem, both have denied these claims on numerous occasions and instead have emphasized that their drivers go through strict scrutiny (background check, training etc) before induction. Uber requires police issued clearance certificate to apply for driver membership. Despite all of these claims, there have been numerous cases all around the world where Uber drivers were found involved in various instances of robbery and even rape (in India).