By Saleem Mubarak
LAHORE: Unscrupulous elements in the police department are allegedly fleecing motorists on the pretext of driving without licences or other documents.
The traffic police have ramped up surveillance and crackdown on the motorists on the order of the Lahore High Court (LHC).
Wardens manning intersections and ‘strategic points’ on city’s thoroughfares and adjacent roads check documents, especially driving licences, and penalise the violators.
It is alleged that the traffic regulators at many places let the violators off the hook by getting money.
Court intervention
On Nov 17 last, Justice Ali Zia Bajwa of LHC directed the Punjab government to book all those driving on roads without having a valid licence.
He issued the direction while hearing a petition to invoke Section 302 in the case related to the tragic car accident which left six members of a family dead in Lahore.
Must Read: LHC orders govt to arrest drivers without valid licence
During the proceeding, the judge asked the officials “how many people have driving licences in Lahore?”
The chief traffic police officer (CTO) informed the court that 7.3 million vehicles were registered in Lahore but only 1.3 million people had driving licences.
The court grilled the officers and asked them about the crackdown on the drivers hitting roads without having valid licences. It observed that a vehicle could not be registered without a driving licence as per an LHC ruling of 2018.
Later, Justice Bajwa gave a ruling to depute additional police force on the traffic signals to arrest the underage drivers. The court also ordered an indiscriminate crackdown on the drivers who have no licences.
Ground reality
The generality of people appreciated the court’s decision which, they said, could help control the menace of underage driving. But, later, the caretaker government’s decision to enhance the learner’s driving licence fee from Rs60 to Rs1,000 in one go riled people.
Must Read: An unwise move: Punjab govt raises learner's driving licence fee to Rs1,000
They said it’s an unwise decision which would undermine the judiciary’s efforts by making the cost of driving licence prohibitive.
Allegations of sleaze
Meanwhile, some people allege that officials have taken it as an opportunity to cash in on the situation.
Several people Dunya News spoke to alleged that wardens asked for money and, in return, allow the violators of various offences to go scot free.
One must bear in mind, says Katab Hussain, that people are already reeling under unprecedented price hike and unable to make both ends meet. Heavy fines being imposed by police and highhandedness of officials only add fuel to the fire of unrest among the marginalised, he argues.
He says motorcycle users particularly find themselves in trouble as they become the easy target of officials and are ‘fined’ disproportionately. The government should review its policy of heavy fines and also bridle the elements fleecing the public, he demands.
Denouncing the policemen, Adnan Shah, a medical representative, says the nature of his job entails a lot of travel. He says he travels by a two-wheeler and regularly wears helmet and carries the documents but wardens seem to find excuses to ‘penalise’ him.
Such ham-handed tactics, he says, undermine the efforts to address the root cause of violations. He says action must be taken against the underage drivers but those who abide by rules and regulations, and have all documents should not be harassed.
Hundreds of people are caught by the traffic police across the province daily and cases are registered against them. No mechanism is available to check how many applications are submitted by the wardens and how many cases registered by a district police against the violators.
Ahtshamul Haq told Dunya News that some officials even sold the applications being filed by the traffic wardens and received bribes with impunity. He said the applications filed by the wardens bore no numbers, which had become a source of earning for the wardens and the district police as well.
He said the people at the helm of affairs must devise a mechanism to keep an eye on the elements fleecing the masses. In some cases, he alleged, the drivers without licences had to pay thousands of rupees to avoid the law snare.
This reporter sought comments from DIG (Operations) Ali Nasir Rizvi to have a clear picture but he did not reply.