KARACHI: Traffic police put off drive under pressure
By S. Raza Hassan
KARACHI, Dec 18: The campaign against vehicles with tinted glass, revolving lights, fancy registration number plates, hooters, etc. has been deferred again apparently due to political considerations.
“The police have started shying away from checking such violations because often a violator turns out to be an influential person and in such situations, senior police officials do not stand behind the policeman on the scene. Instead, the hierarchy suspends the poor cop,” says a traffic sergeant requesting anonymity.
Sources in the police department said that the campaign was planned to be launched before the last Eidul Fitr but it was feared that high tempers often shown by the fast-observing people would make any action counter productive.
Owing to the apprehension, the campaign was put off till the conclusion of the military equipment exhibition, the Ideas 2006, a senior police official had told Dawn before the exhibition.
However, the campaign has apparently fallen prey to political considerations.
During the initial period of the tenure of former city police chief Niaz Ahmed Siddiqui, a vigorous campaign had been launched against the vehicles violating such rules. It had proved successful to such an extent that people had voluntarily started removing the tinted glass while police were sending the defiant drivers and vehicle-owners to lock-ups.
It was perhaps for the first time that a large number of people, especially youth, had to spend at least one night behind the bars for the offence committed in a posh area like Clifton, besides in other localities.
However, like in the case of other such campaigns, police again failed to resist the pressures, especially from political figures, and had to stop the campaign abruptly, although it was proving a success, when Clifton police stopped a federal minister’s car.
Though he was not riding the car at that time, the minister rushed to the scene from his home to get his car released. It was only after the intervention by the then provincial home minister that the police released the car.
The episode marked the end of the campaign suggesting that as long as ministers and politicians would continue to resist abiding by the traffic rules, such drives would end up in a similar manner.
On several occasions, senior police officers, as well as some ministers, have publicly admitted that vehicles with tinted glass are widely used in committing crimes.
These days, violation of the traffic rule is rampant to such an extent that people have started getting their vehicles’ windscreens tinted.
“Now a vehicle with its windscreen and other glass screens tinted, protects its driver and other occupants from getting exposed to people outside,” remarked a senior police officer, who added: “such a vehicle becomes most suspicious but usually policemen would not stop it as it amounts to inviting trouble.”
