March 11, 2003	Tuesday	Muharram 7, 1424

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

RAWALPINDI, March 10: The ban on pillion-riding during Muharram has not only provided an excuse to the local police to fleece the public but also opened a Pandora’s box for the latter to get the possession of their impounded motorbikes, residents complained.

On Monday, long queues were seen in front of the courts of judicial magistrates. “People are running between police stations and courts to get clearance of their bikes”, said Sayyed Abbas and Ajmal, who were waiting for their turn in front of a court.

According to rough estimates, the police has impounded more than 1,000 motorbikes so far.

Despite having complete documents, people have to get clearance from Muharars and station house officers, said another person, adding that they had to undergo a tiresome process of the court also.

Those, who were possessing bikes on instalments or through open letters and were not having full documents, were facing the worst problems.

The people complained that the ban caused severe problems for those, who had to pick and drop their children from schools and colleges.

Meanwhile, the lawyers have termed the ban irrational and against the individual freedom. They said the law could be implemented only on suspected or stolen vehicles or the vehicles without proper documents. The police cannot impound the vehicles, with proper documents, they said.

Mujeebur Rehman advocate said the government could only implement Section 144 of CrPC and could deal with the violators of that section under Section 188 of PPC. He said as the police officials had no authority to impound any body’s vehicle by their own, the prior permission of the District Co-Ordinating Officer was a must.

He said there was no well-devised law on pillion-riding during critical periods, therefore, the inspector general and deputy inspector general of police along with the district police officer (DPO) and district co-ordinator officer (DCO) held a meeting with the ministry of interior, wherein they decided to implement Section 550 instead of Section 144 of CrPC, which went totally against the interests of the people.

The people complained that Eagle squad, traffic police and Elite force were constantly fleecing and manhandling the masses under the shelter of Section 550.

They called upon the government to lift ban on pillion-riding to save them from humiliation at the hands of police.