CM inaugurates vehicle inspection system

Announces operation against street criminals in Karachi

KARACHI: Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah inaugurated on Wednesday the Vehicle Inspection and Certification System (VICS), under which vehicles in Karachi will be inspected for fitness.

A system ensuring fitness of vehicles will result in safety of citizens, the CM said speaking at the ceremony held in the SITE area. The gathering was told that the inspection system would be  effective and efficient and it would be implemented in partnership with the private sector.

Earlier, the transport department had signed an agreement with OPUS, a consortium of international companies, in July last year. According to the agreement, a state-of-the-art vehicle inspection and certification system complying with international standards would be established for Karachi so that unfit vehicles would not be allowed to ply on the roads of the city.

The CM said that in the first phase, the VICS centre would start operations in Karachi while in the second phase, similar centres would be established in in every divisional headquarter. All three-year-old vehicles, whether they were commercial or private, would have to obtain a fitness certificate, Shah said.



Street crime

Responding to a question on rising street crime in Karachi, the CM said the law and order situation of Karachi was better than the past. No terrorist activity took place in the city during 2017, he said.

Shah maintained that the government was planning to launch an operation against street criminals. The CM said that big cities like Karachi usually had issues of street crime, adding that his statement should not be interpreted as justification of crimes in the city.

In the past, there used to be shutter-down strikes in Karachi in which passenger buses were set on fire but all those things had become history, Shah said. He praised residents of Karachi for supporting the government in its efforts to eliminate criminal elements.