Tickets issued for various traffic violations in the past eight months have generated the provincial capital, at the very minimum, Rs1 billion in revenue.
Yet however, despite the huge monetary collection, the traffic department has remained unable to bring any betterment to Karachi’s crumbling traffic system.
According to official figures compiled by office of Karachi’s Traffic DIG, the traffic police has imposed penalties on more than 3.2 million people in the city from January 01 to August 11 this year.
The varying penalties were imposed for different violations of traffic rules. Those include wrong-way driving, riding motor cycles without helmet, wrong turns, over-speeding, vehicles exceeding prescribed weight and etc.
Per official rate list of fines the traffic police charges anywhere between Rs150 to Rs2000 for standard violations, among which helmet-less bikers and wrong-way drivers remain the most common offenders.
The penalty charged for their violations are Rs150 and Rs500 respectively. In addition to that, the traffic police charges Rs400 each, for speeding and for violation of traffic signals, while Rs1,000 for reckless driving and Rs2,000 for repeating same violation.
Former Karachi Traffic Police DIG Iqbal Dara had recently told the media that traffic police had collected Rs452 million through 1.9 million penalties in the city.
Adding to which, a statement from the DIG’s spokesperson revealed that the traffic police had collected Rs23 million during a month in a drive against under-age drivers launched in last September; suggesting that the department has cumulatively collected over Rs one billion in fines.
Citizens however claim that despite the rampant fining, Karachi’s traffic situation has only worsened in the course of the last year.
Whereas, the number of road accidents is also surging at a yearly rate. For instance, some 178 road accidents were recorded during 2020, whereas the number of road accidents was 215 during first nine months of this year. Most of the road accidents were caused by heavy vehicles running in the city, including trailers, trucks, dumpers, water tankers, buses and coaches.
In 2020, at least 109 accidents were caused by heavy vehicles, leaving 97 dead. Similarly, 140 road accidents in Karachi occurred due to heavy vehicles during first nine months of 2021.
Whereas, at least 115 people died in accidents caused by heavy vehicles out of a total of 183 collisions during the same period this year. According to the data over one million fines were imposed against bikers and motorists for driving on the wrong way. Similarly, some 0.7 million people were fined for riding motorcycles without safety helmet.
In this regard, citizens believe that the city’s traffic system cannot be improved as long as the traffic police’s focus remains at only imposing fines and generating revenue.
Per Akhtar Hussain, a resident of Baldia Town, motorists and bikers are easy targets for traffic police and therefore remain the most frequently fined segment of drivers. Responding to public allegations, a traffic warden speaking on conditions of anonymity revealed that they are compelled to make more challans of violators as their performance is linked to it.
According to him traffic wardens are served show-cause notices in case of less fines issued. On the other hand however, Traffic Police District West Superintendent (SP) Noorul Haq Rind dispelled the impression that traffic police officers are given particular targets of penalties.
“But yes, it’s true that their performance is considered good in case they make more fines on traffic violations. As for bikers, they are found to be involved in most traffic rules violations and therefore they are fined in majority. The area police also register FIRs against drivers of heavy vehicles in case they are found involved in fatal road accidents,” he maintained.
Adding to that, Traffic Police District East SP, Ghulam Sarwar said traffic police’s focus remains on management of traffic. “Imposing fines for violations of traffic rules is also part of traffic management. Lack of awareness about traffic rules is also a reason for traffic violations. For this, the traffic police organises multiple awareness sessions in the city,” he told The Express Tribune.
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