How to get a driving licence

The legal way or a shortcut are the choices when you go to a driving licence branch.

KARACHI:

If you want to feel like a celebrity and experience the paparazzi, head down to the driving licence branch at Clifton, where agents will make a beeline for you as soon as you step out of your car. 

As long as you are willing to pay what they demand, you can be sure to find an ‘easier’ way to do anything you planned to do at the office that day. “We provide our services to relieve the people from standing in long queues for hours and help them get their licences without stress,”

Babar, a young agent outside the Clifton office, told The Express Tribune. “This is not illegal,” he assured.



Babar and his colleagues are so good at their job that they can narrow down their target out of the dozens of people who walk the road, without even an exchange of words. “If I didn’t have this quality, the other agents will take away all my clients.”

Babar helps people with the paper work, fill out forms and, sometimes, even pass their driving tests on their behalf - all of this in return for a nominal amount of money. For a learner’s licence, the agents charge Rs250 and the rates go up as the nature of the job becomes more illegal.

“We have links with police officers in the office but I can’t tell you how much we charge to pass tests because that would stop the police from helping us and, eventually, we will lose our source of income.”

Muzaffar Afridi, who came to get a heavy transport vehicle licence, said he only had to pay Rs100 to get help in passing the driving test. But, DSP Raees Abdul Ghani denied these claims. “The DIG monitors all driving tests through cameras,” he explained. “Every man has to appear for these tests on his own and no agent can help there.”

How to get a licence without an agent

If you are able to manoeuvre your way around these agents and entered the licence office, then here is what you will have to do. Walk up to the reception and buy an application and a medical fitness certificate form for Rs5. Fill out the forms and attach a copy of your computerised national identity card and two passport-sized photographs. The first step is data entry, in which an officer will feed your information into the system.

“Applicants with no references have to wait like me for hours,” complained Asad, a young man in his late 20, as he was waiting for his turn at the waiting room. “Every second man comes here with someone’s reference and completes his work without any delay and people like me have been waiting for their name to be called since morning.”

After feeding the data into the system the operator will send you to get your medical test for Rs100. The medical officer will check your eyesight, which should be 6/6 or 6/9 with or without spectacles, explained Dr Zafar, the medical officer.

“We check for colour blindness, night blindness and for physical fitness disorders,” he told The Express Tribune. Once you pass the physical fitness test, you will get a ticket to submit your form and fee at the counter - the official fee chart for different categories of driving licences is displayed. In the last step, a photographer will take your picture and then issue a learners’ permit, which is valid for a year.

After holding your learner’s licence for 42 days, you can apply for a permanent licence, as long as you pass a medical test and submit the fee. The only difference is that you will have to give a driving test. Of the three sections on driving skills, traffic rules and signs, you have to score at least 80 per cent marks to get a permanent licence.

In the end, a policeman conducts a practical driving test in which he observes your driving skills on a straight road, parallel parking, applying brakes and observing traffic rules. “If someone fails any of these tests, then he will have to wait for another 42 days and then try again,” said DSP Ghani.  He hoped to simplify the process in the future. “We could easily find out information about any applicant with a single click if all the offices in the country are linked, or at least the three offices in this city.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 16^th, 2013.