PHOTO: EXPRESS
KARACHI: The traffic police department is not happy with the way their helmet-compulsory drive is being treated by their parent department - the Sindh police.
The decision to mandate female pillion riders to wear the safety gear, which was recently imposed by the traffic police on the orders of Traffic DIG Amir Ahmed Shaikh was called off following uproar by the public.
According to Sindh IG Ghulam Haider Jamali, "Females on motorcycles do not have to wear helmets as it is not practically possible for them to handle the safety gear."
Meanwhile, a senior traffic police official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told The Express Tribune that the IG did not have the authority to suspend the orders of the traffic DIG based on the provision of a law. The official added that the traffic police's helmet-compulsory drive was being conducted under Section 89-A of the Motor Vehicle Ordinance and the IG did not have the authority to override the law.
"There have been around 13 female casualties on motorcycles this year," the official pointed out, questioning who would be responsible if more women died in motorcycle accidents.
The road traffic injury research and prevention centre's accident investigation officer, Irfan Saleem, also reiterated the stance of the traffic police. He recalled how a 30-year-old woman, Husna Bibi, had died in a motorcycle accident hardly an hour earlier. "She was hit by a truck at Drigh Road in front of the Byco petrol pump and died from an injury to the head," he said. "Had she been wearing a helmet, she may have survived."
According to him, every fifth motorcycle accident that takes place in Karachi injures a female. "Most of them are fatal," he said, adding that the head safety gear was as important for women as they were for men.
Mahnaz Rahman, the resident director of Aurat Foundation, criticised the exemption order by the IG and said that it was a matter of safety. "In the case of a motorcycle accident, both the man and the woman receive injuries," she said, questioning why there was gender discrimination in the imposition of traffic laws.
Meanwhile, the traffic police official Muhammad Idrees, who is a reader to the traffic DIG, said the department was experiencing several problems from the day they had mandated the safety gear for women. "The religious extremists were trying to cash in on the issue adversely," he pointed out, adding that they had exempted women to avoid any chaotic situation.
He stressed, however, that male pillion riders will have to wear the safety gear. According to him, 3,452 people, including 17 police officials, were fined a sum of Rs51,930 on Wednesday alone.
The traffic police are also looking to mandate wearing seatbelts while driving cars and will launch a drive in this regard soon.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 12th, 2015.
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