The court issued the notices on the constitutional petition filed by Advocate Shams Rajpar, following the tragic accident near Khairpur on Tuesday, which claimed the lives of 59 people and left 18 others injured.
Speaking to The Express Tribune, the petitioner said that the condition of the N-5 highway between Ubauro and Hyderabad was very bad, due to which several accidents had occurred and precious lives were lost. According to Rajpar, the funds meant for the construction of the highway were misused and the work had inordinately been delayed.
The petitioner also claimed that it was the duty of the NHA to provide an alternative route for commuters before undertaking any construction work on the highway. He added that the motorway police had also failed to do their job due to which accidents on the N-5 had become common. Rajpar asked the court to order the authorities to announce due compensation for the families of the victims in the latest accident.
Accepting the petition, the court issued notices to the relevant officials, directing them to appear before the court in person on November 26 and submit a report regarding the construction work on the highway between Hyderabad and Ubauro.
Police register case
Meanwhile, a case has been registered against the NHA at the B-Section Police Station in Khairpur. The FIR was registered by sub-inspector Amir Khan on behalf of the state. Interestingly, this is the first time that a government institution has been implicated in the FIR of an accident.
On the other hand, a motorway police official, speaking to The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity, said that the ill-fated passenger coach, bearing registration number: JB-5190, was on the way to Karachi from Swat when it met with the accident. He claimed that the coach was overloaded and had been intercepted at Khan Bella checkpost near Rahim Yar Khan and fined for carrying extra passengers. Later, it had also been stopped by the motorway police in Mirpur Mathelo and fined for overloading.
The official explained that vehicles operating between Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Karachi are often over-crowded and fined by the motorway police. "Sometimes, we adjust the extra passengers in other vehicles but this is not always possible as most vehicles are full to capacity," he said.
For his part, the Motorway Police DIG AD Khawaja confirmed that the vehicle had been stopped and fined for overloading at Mirpur Mathelo. Explaining the policy of the motorway police, DIG Khawaja said that goods carriers were often sent back to their station of origin if they were found to be overloading. He added, however, that it was not possible for passenger coaches to be sent back as the commuters would inevitably suffer.
Speaking about the coach in question, he said that the vehicle had a capacity to seat 53 people, while additional seats had been installed to adjust more passengers.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 13th, 2014.
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