Mohmand traffic levies out for rowdy drivers

Squad of specially trained levies on motorbikes to patrol the streets, violators to be fined

SHABQADAR: In a bid to control overspeeding on the Mohmand-Bajaur Expressway and to reduce the number of traffic accidents, the Mohmand Agency administration has decided to deploy traffic police.

The new squad has been modelled on the National Highway and Motorway Police which patrol the major highways and motorways of the country.

The squad was formally introduced at a function at the Ghallanai check post where Mohmand Agency Political Agent Mehmood Aslam Wazir, tribal elders and other administration officials were present.

Wazir said that after the construction of the Nahki Tunnel and the Mohmand-Bajaur Expressway, there was a need to control traffic on the roads to reduce the number of accidents.

Explaining the components of the force, the political agent said that 20 levies officials were provided with specialised training, on the standards of the training provided to the motorway police.

He said that the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) have no traffic police and that this was the first time in the history of the region that they were getting dedicated personnel to control traffic in the urban and rural areas of the agency.

Apart from the mammoth task to control rowdy drivers, Wazir said that the traffic levy force has been provided with speed guns as well as motorbikes. Ten of each were handed out during the ceremony.

Moreover, a speed limit has been chalked out for the densely populated urban and sparsely populated rural areas of the agency. A list of fines has also been introduced for various traffic violations.

Even as the move signals impending signs of amalgamation of the agency with the rest of the country, rowdy drivers can afford to be a little carefree for a while longer still.

Wazir said that before the new traffic regime goes into effect, a week-long awareness drive will be held across the agency. For this purpose, he said that they had sought the help of religious scholars, clerics and local tribal elders.

Among the new traffic rules being introduced in the agency, Wazir said that helmets will now be mandatory for riding a motorbike. Moreover, all non-registered motorbike and rickshaws will have to be registered under traffic laws in the agency.

Meanwhile, Mohmand welfare organisation held an awareness drive about over speeding on the Mohmand-Bajaur Expressway in the Mian Mandi Gnadao on Monday.

Speakers termed the introduction of the traffic levies as a good move for traffic control and added it was necessary after the construction of Nahki tunnel and completion of the Mohmand-Bajaur Expressway.

This is the first time that a traffic police system has been introduced in the tribal areas complete with speed guns and motorbikes.

In 2015, a similar force was introduced in Khyber agency after completion of the Peshawar-Torkham highway. But the force gradually faded away after the officials were transferred to other positions in the agency.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 22^nd, 2017.