Uncollected amount: To beat traffic fines, Islooites just get new licences

Millions in fines against licences go unpaid; ICT admin tells traffic to seize vehicle documents instead.

ISLAMABAD:

Almost Rs14 million in traffic fines issued during last year have gone uncollected due to the issuance of fines against driving licences and national identity cards (NIC) it has been learnt.

Sources in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) revealed that Rs13.82 million went uncollected during the last year due to reasons including incomplete or incorrect address details of violators and the issuance of challans against photocopies of various documents.

Despite clear directions to the Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) from the Islamabad Capital Territory Administration (ICT) to avoid issuing challans against NICs and driving licences, a huge number of both identity documents were pending before different city magistrates. A senior ICT official said that a fresh reminder was given to the ITP in the first week of December.

Documents available with The Express Tribune show that 29,005 ID cards and 19,853 driving licences were pending before magistrates. “Notices were issued to the violators, but challans could not be disposed of due to reasons like incomplete addresses of violators...and many have left their houses and moved to other places,” said an ICT official.

Sources said that another contributor to the problem is that many violators don’t bother to get back their ID cards or driving licences.



“They prefer to get fresh cards made for Rs 200 to 300 instead of getting their old ID cards back from a magistrate,” he added.

In recent directives to the Traffic Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) Dr Moeen Masood, the ICT expressed concern over losses incurred due to fines against ID cards and driving licences and directed traffic constables to confiscate the registration book instead of ID cards and driving licence.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Traffic SSP Dr Moeen Masood admitted that a huge number of ID cards and driving licences were pending before different magistrates. “In order to facilitate the public, we used to fine them on ID Cards and licences and let the court summon them’’ he added.

However, he claimed that ITP constables have now started confiscating registration books. He was confident that the pending amount would also be collected.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 19^th, 2012.