Unfit for the road: SHC bans three-wheeler Qingqis

The vehicles were declared unsafe and a risk to commuters

KARACHI:

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has ordered the authorities to take immediate action against the operation of illegal three-wheeler motorcycle rickshaws, commonly known as Qingqis, across the province.

The vehicles, the court decreed, were unsafe and operated without any official route permits, registration or fitness certificates. What is ironic is that they had become the primary mode of public transport in the metropolis in only a few years.

A division bench, headed by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, passed this ruling while allowing a petition filed by the United Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. The petitioner had asked the court to declare that the three-wheeler motorcycle rickshaws plying in Karachi, Larkana, Hyderabad and Sukkur violated the Motor Vehicle Ordinance 1965 and the Motor Vehicle Rules 1969.

The petitioner had alleged that a mafia was managing its increased flow as a public transport medium and operating even on the wrong side of the busy roads. He had alleged that traffic police and other authorities were not taking legal action against such unregistered and unauthorised vehicles. Rather, they were conniving with them and providing legal protection due to which the number of such Qingqi rickshaws was increasing with each passing day.

In response to the court's notices, comments were filed by the Motor Vehicle-I Branch SP, the excise and taxation secretary, the law secretary and the Traffic DIG.

The judges observed that these official respondents had not denied the averments as contained in the petition, whereas, it was stated that the Qingqi motorcycle rickshaws did not comply with the requirements of Chapter-IV of the Motor Vehicle Ordinance, 1965. Hence, the same were liable to be confiscated.

They further stated that no fitness certificates had been obtained by the Qingqi rickshaws, adding that neither were they registered with the motor registration wing, nor was there any proof regarding safety measures to be adopted by the public vehicles to be used for commercial purposes.

Making submissions on behalf of the provincial authorities, the provincial law officer, Saifullah, contended that the rickshaw owners had not even applied for registration with the registration authority, whereas they had filed a petition to cover up their illegal activities and made a counter blast to the other plea of Rana Faizul Hasan.

The officer contended that a public vehicle to be used for commercial purpose is required to be registered and a fitness certificate must be obtained from the prescribed authority. "The owner is required to obtain a route permit for plying such vehicles on the roads in terms of Section 44 of the MVO 1969, whereas, in the case of the subject three-wheeler Qingqi motorcycle rickshaws, none of the above legal formalities have been complied with," he contended.

Meanwhile, the Karachi chapter of the Qingqi Motorcycle Rickshaws Welfare Association and the Association of Owners and Staff of Qingqi Rickshaws, Sindh chapter, also joined in, pleading to restrain the traffic police and other authorities from taking any adverse action or detaining the three-wheeler rickshaws.

When confronted, the association's lawyer pleaded that the three-wheeler motorcycle rickshaws may be declared as eligible to be issued fitness certificate, route permit and registration in accordance with the law. But the association could not show any record of such request or representation allegedly made by them to the transport and registration authorities.

The bench remarked it was regretted that despite the non-fulfillment of any of these legal requirements, such vehicles were being allowed to ply on the busy roads of Karachi and other cities by the official respondents. It added that since official respondents had not taken any prompt action against such violators, their number had increased tremendously and the traffic conditions in the city of Karachi as well as in the other cities of the province had become alarmingly hazardous and painful to the large number of citizens.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 6^th, 2015.