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| November 26, 2006 | Sunday | Ziqa'ad 4, 1427 |
‘Punjab has only 34 vehicle examiners’
LAHORE, Nov 25: There were only 34 motor vehicle examiners functioning throughout the province to examine roadworthiness of public transport and issue fitness certificates to the vehicles.
This was stated at the first meeting of the government departments’ committee, set up by the Lahore High Court to suggest measures to prevent road accidents.
Deputy-Director Kamran Ali of the provincial transport department told the 17-member committee, headed by Deputy Attorney-General Dr Danishwar Malik, that motor vehicle examiners were to be appointed in all districts of the province under the Motor Vehicle Ordinance, 1959, and rules made there under. But, at present, many districts had no examiner to issue fitness certificates to buses, wagons and other public transport vehicles operating there without the necessary document.
The committee was informed that the bus, which met an accident near Ghaziabad in Lahore on Dec 11, 2005, was issued a fitness certificate in January 2004, while the law required the renewal of the document every six months. The accident caused by fireworks explosion claimed the lives of 5 passengers, while another 11 sustained injuries.
The committee, which also has on its terms of reference the improvement in disaster management and suggesting ways to check pollution to ensure a clean atmosphere, decided broad parameters for its future working. It also decided to submit before Justice Syed Zahid Husain, who is proceeding in a public interest writ petition on the accident moved by advocate Mohammad Azhar Siddiqui, a preliminary report of the committee’s first proceedings on Nov 27 when the LHC would again take up the hearing of the petition. The committee would again meet on Dec 9.
Petitioner Azhar Siddiqui apprised the committee of his concern raised in the writ petition and a Punjab additional advocate-general Aamer Rehman informed its members about the court directions issued at the time of announcing the formation of the body.
Advocate Azhar told the committee that transport authorities showed carelessness and inefficiency in allowing the public transport to operate. He said the fireworks and other hazardous material, which caught fire in the bus, was being illegally transported.
He also said that railway crossing on Mughalpura canal was being carelessly kept close as a result of which the patients, even those in critical condition, could not be shifted to hospital. He said three of the critically injured passengers died because of the closure of the railway crossing. —Correspondent
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