Rude awakening: Traffic rule breakers warned of stiffer penalties

Sindh chief minister acknowledges weak regulations.

HYDERABAD: The unabated violation of the traffic and transport regulations, which claims thousands of lives every year, has finally drawn the provincial government’s attention with Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah proclaiming on Friday that the existing laws will be made more stringent to ensure their compliance.

“The Sindh government is considering increasing both the punishment and penalty against the violators of traffic and transport rules in order to prevent accidents,” he said while talking to the media in Daulatpur where he offered condolence to the families who lost their children in the road accident near Nawabshah on January 15.

The accident, between a school van and a dumper, killed 20 schoolchildren, two teachers and the van driver.

The chief minister tacitly acknowledged the weak regulations and still weaker enforcement while informing about making amendments in the relevant laws. “Stringent laws will be introduced to punish the drivers whose negligence caused loss of innocent lives.”

He also said that the process of getting a driving licence will be made more strict while training schools for the drivers will be opened in all districts of the province.

The concerned law, Provincial Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Ordinance, 1978, though rarely enforced, is very short on punishment and penalty.

The FIR registered against the dumper driver Zahid Pathan and his associates Abdul Qayum and Afzal Khan contains sections of Pakistan Penal Code. The accused have been booked under section 320 which relates to death due to negligent driving and section 324 of attempt to murder, among other offences.

Although the Nawabshah police have been denying arrest of any of the suspects, the chief minister said that the accused have been arrested. The chief minister also constituted an investigation committee led by Hyderabad Commissioner Jamal Mustafa Syed. The committee will submit its report within a week. “I have directed them to include the government officers in the investigation who caused delayed rescue and medical response.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2014.