The young and the reckless: DI Khan tries to kick underage drivers to the curb

Before the Mehsud tribesmen moved to the area, the rickshaw business was mostly run by Seraiki speakers.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN/ MANSEHRA:

Hailing a rickshaw in DI Khan and Tank has become quite a chore. The driver is usually a teenager with long hair who loves to speed, and the DIG is not happy about it.

For DIG Abdul Ghafar Afridi, the main problem is not just unlicensed teenage drivers but also their brightly coloured qingqis and the fact that they play Saeed Alam Mehsud’s Kundai Khath very loudly on repeat.

In order to decrease the number of road accidents, hit-and-runs and speeding, the DIG has ordered the traffic police to crackdown on these young drivers.



DI Khan City Traffic Police In charge, Khalid Khan, said they had started taking underage qingqi drivers into custody. He added they would not let young people take the law in their hands or play music loudly in public.

It’s all about business

Before Mehsud tribesmen moved to the area after the 2009 military operation, the rickshaw business was mostly run by Seraiki speakers. Now, young Mehsud boys are running the show. This causes a problem for the administration as both sides feel they are being discriminated against. A rickshaw stand was inaugurated in Dabara, 30km from Tank city, on Sunday. It is expected to increase traffic to and from the area.

Tariq Khan Mehsud, 23, drives a rickshaw in DI Khan. He claimed he was afraid the police would take his rickshaw and then he would have no way to support his family. He added that he felt harassed just because he was from Waziristan.

“The police say it is our fault that we drive fast without a license and number plate,” said Tariq. “But I know how to drive a rickshaw and how to behave with the passengers.”

According to Imran Hafiz, a reporter at DI Khan’s Urdu daily newspaper Meezan Adal, the young rickshaw drivers indulge in vehicle acrobatics, including wheelies. He added that the teenage rickshaw drivers also played loud music which caused a nuisance.

In Haripur

Rickshaw drivers have decided to protest and block GT Road if the Regional Traffic Authorities (RTA) failed to issue route permits and traffic police continued to fine them. More than two dozen rickshaw owners stood with the president of the Peoples Rickshaw Union, Gul Hasan, as he made the announcement on Sunday.

He said the district administration had allowed rickshaws to work in the revenue limits of Haripur to meet the local demand. Hasan added once they got the rickshaw, it had to be examined by the motor vehicle examiner every year. However, he claimed, even though they paid the taxes, they were not registered or issued route permits.

Noor Alam, an office bearer of the union, said more than 500 rickshaws have been impounded by the police while hundreds others were forced to go off the road. He added the Rickshaw Owners Union will launch a protest in two days if the authorities failed to issue route permits to all rickshaws.

Traffic in charge Ishtiaq Khan confirmed the RTA has started working against unregistered rickshaws and those without a route permit. It has impounded 200 rickshaws and imposed a fine of Rs5,000 for violation of traffic rules. According to Ishtiaq, only 265 rickshaw had a permit in Haripur but more than 4,000 drivers from Peshawar, Mardan, and Bannu in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and Sargodha and Lahore in Punjab had come for work and caused a traffic mess.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9^th, 2013.