Poor policing: Unlawful parking becoming a nuisance
Encroachments on a footpath next to a plaza on Sixth Road, Rawalpindi, has become a cause of nuisance for motorists. The footpath has been transformed into an illegal parking spot and is thronged by street vendors. PHOTO: AGHA MEHROZ/EXPRESS
Despite directives of the Sindh High Court, the port city which is home to millions cannot seem to solve its car parking conundrum and its traffic police has seemingly succumbed to illegal car parkings. The Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) and Cantonment Boards award contracts to private contractors for charged parking in the city; however, these private contractors do not take responsibility for enforcing traffic rules and regulations.
And with the city’s traffic police missing in action, unlawful parking on Karachi’s roads has become a common sight, which is a pain for commuters and is a glaring violation of the Sindh High Court’s orders. “Parking automobiles and motorcycles in multiple lanes is illegal but the traffic police does not seem to care,” remarked an irate Bashir Memon, who is Saddar Town’s Deputy Director for charged parking.
“In accordance with directives from the Sindh High Court, the Saddar Town Administration has highlighted all locations where charged parking is legal. The traffic police should fine those who park illegally but they are nowhere to be seen,” he added. Residents and commuters are similarly perturbed by illegal motor vehicle and motorcycle parkings. Abdul Moeed, a long term resident of Liaquatabad, whilst criticising Karachi’s traffic police department, said that the traffic police picks a few illegally parked cars and motorcycles as a formality and then calls it a day.
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“They do not care about the havoc that unlawful parking creates.” Muhammad Rizwan, who works on the busy I. I. Chundrigar Road, concurring with Moeed, also had a bone to pick with the traffic department. “There is no traffic management or parking plan. The lifters owned by the traffic police are just for show as no rules or regulations are ever enforced,” asserted Rizwan. “However, paid parking contractors are also to be blamed as they only care about the money they make, not about where cars and bikes are parked.” In this regard, an official of the KMC, under the condition of anonymity, acknowledged that both private contractors and traffic police were equally responsible for the illegal parkings.
“Both the private contractors and traffic police take hefty bribes to let people park wherever they want. Thus, no action is ever taken against unlawful parking,” he alleged. However, Deputy Inspector General Traffic Police Karachi, Iqbal Dara, denied the allegations. “The persistent unlawful parking issue is due to a lack of manpower and resources,” informed Dara. “We just have 18 lifters for cars and 24 lifters for motorcycles for a city of Karachi’s size. These numbers are not enough to address illegal parkings,” the DIG elaborated.
When pressed for a long-term solution to curb unlawful parking in the city given the Sindh High Court’s orders, Dara was of the view that only an increase in public transport would help. “Karachi only has 250 public buses, whereas the city’s requirement is 1,200 buses,” DIG Dara said while talking to The Express Tribune.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 18th, 2023.