Rule enforcement: ‘Traffic rule breakers should be imprisoned’

Traffic police DIG says stricter action should be taken against negligent drivers

KARACHI: Karachi traffic police DIG Dr Amir Ahmed Shaikh said on Friday that there is a dire need for amendments in the Motor Vehicle Ordinance, 1965, and to extend punishments to traffic law violators, so as to develop a sense of responsibility in drivers among Karachi.

Shaikh said they are going to write to the Sindh IG and the Sindh government's law department, requesting them to increase fine charges and extend the period of imprisonment for those who violate traffic rules, especially who have fake driving licences or no documents of vehicles they are driving.



The DIG said that negligent drivers are behind 75 per cent of road accidents in the city, most of whom do not have proper driving licences. Karachi is  an urban city so there should be strict rules for drivers, he said. “When our people travel abroad they follow the laws strictly but in their own country they freely violate them.”

He said the motor vehicle law states that driving without a licence is an offence. He said if the fine for this offence was increased from Rs500 to Rs2,000, plus one-month imprisonment, it will have positive results. There is a rule that no person shall drive a motor vehicle in a public place unless it is in his possession as per the Pakistan Highway Code and to stop violations of this rule they also recommend increasing punishment.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 24^th, 2015.