30 April 2005	Saturday	20 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426

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PESHAWAR, April 29: The federal government is reported to be considering a proposal to set up an authority to standardize transport-related rules and regulations in the four provinces.

An official of the federal ministry of communication, who did not want to be named, said that the government had called a meeting of representatives of the provinces for their opinion on the proposal.

The official said that the rationale for setting up such an authority was to centralize the powers of issuing driving licences, fitness certificates and vehicle registration documents and to introduce uniform rules on road safety, establishment of driving schools and drivers’ training and to check issuance of double and bogus licenses/documents.

He said that the proposal included a centralized computerised database of vehicles registered in the provinces.

However, it has been learnt that officials of the provincial governments have opposed the proposal on the ground that the establishment of a central body would take all the functions from the provincial transport departments.

“Instead of guiding the provincial departments, the federal government seems to be taking over their functions and powers”, said an NWFP government official.

The central authority would reduce the functions of traffic police to imposing fines, he added.

The sub-offices of the authority, working at district level, would be useless as all the functions would be centralized in the authority working in Islamabad, he further said.

He said: “Concentration of the powers at central level would create communication problems between districts of four provinces and centre and cause delay in issuing driving licenses and other documents.

“The people of remote areas will face more problems as purchase and the process of preparing vehicle registration documents will become cumbersome due to day to day changes in the data about vehicles and their ownership.”

Federal Secretary of Communication Tariq Mehmood said that provinces would be taken into confidence on the issue and a final decision would be made on the basis of a consensus.

He claimed that the response of provinces to the proposal of setting the centralized authority was positive.