Learners to pay Rs1,000 for licence
Special recommendations will be sent to provincial authorities.
The caretaker Punjab cabinet on Tuesday approved a whooping increase in the learner driving licence fee to Rs1,000 from Rs60.
The decision will be effective from January 1.
The light, heavy and public service vehicle driving licence fees will also be increased.
Residents of other countries will pay $100 for obtaining a licence.
The citizens obtaining driving licences before January 1 will be charged the current fees.
The decision comes amid a rush by thousands of people to licence centres after the city traffic police launched a crackdown against driving without the permits.
A large number of learner driving permits have been issued in the city in recent weeks. Thousands of citizens renewed their learner permits during the period.
Read ‘Illegal’ drivers cheat system
The police have registered thousands of FIRs against underage drivers and those driving without the document.
The Lahore High Court (LHC) had directed the authorities concerned to take strict action in this regard after six members of a family, including two infants and two women, had been killed in a road accident involving an underage driver in a speeding vehicle.
During a meeting, the provincial caretaker cabinet endorsed an agreement with the National Highways and Motorway Police for the exchange of vehicle registration information.
It endorsed a lottery system for allocating 344,000 acres of government land to landless farmers in Cholistan.
The land will be allotted at subsidised rates.
Under a policy approved for MBBS and BDS students in government medical and dental colleges, transfers will only be allowed from institutions with high to low merit levels. The caretaker cabinet decided to hand over the management of prison hospitals to the health department. A healthcare system for prisoners was approved.
Read more LHC directs release of teen motorists on pledge to abstain from driving without licence
Release of funds was greenlit to double the number of nursing students and a management committee for the Institute of Public Health was established.
It renewed an agreement between the Punjab Specialised Healthcare and Medical Education Department and the Recep Tayyip Erdogan Health Trust for the operation of regional blood centres in Multan and Bahawalpur.
A decision was made to elevate the Children’s Hospital in Faisalabad to the status of a medical institute under the Punjab Medical and Health Institutions Act 2003.
According to an official statement, the establishment of the Pakistan Kidney and Liver Institute-2 (PKLI-2) for South Punjab in the Multan Institute of Kidney Diseases was also confirmed.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 6th, 2023.