September 29, 2008	Monday	Ramazan 28, 1429

KARACHI, Sept 28: Policemen have sped up their ‘Eidi drive’ by extorting money not only from motorists and motorcyclists but also from drivers of public transport in the metropolis as Eid draws closer, Dawn has learnt.

Though traffic and regular police had started minting money in the name of Eidi from motorcyclists since the beginning of Ramazan the September 20 blasts in Islamabad gave them a golden opportunity to expedite the drive.

Instead of patrolling the area of their responsibility the regular police on motorcycles are commonly seen targeting cars and motorcycles near busy intersections. They usually do not check vehicles instead they ask a driver to produce driving licence, vehicles registration and insurance papers ignoring that they do not have any challan authority. They harass the driver, saying that his vehicle will be impounded in case the victim fails to produce any documents. The victim has no choice but to give grease the palm of policemen in the name of Eidi.

A number of such complaints have been received from citizens.

A resident of North Nazimabad told Dawn that he was on his way to office on his motorcycle when four policemen on two motorcycles signalled him at Tahir Villa Chowrangi. One of the policemen asked him to produce his driving licence and registration papers of the motorcycle. When he showed them the required papers, the police asked him to produce an authority letter because the documents were issued under the name of his brother.

“As I was not is possession of any such letter, he told me that it was a serious matter and either I should leave my motorcycle in their custody or go along with them to the police station for verification. After a few minutes, another policeman came apparently to rescue me and demanded Rs500. However, after some negotiations, the policeman accepted Rs100 and allowed me to leave,” he added.

Public transport

When president of the Karachi Transport Ittehad Irshad Ahmed Bukhari was approached, he said it was a matter of routine that personnel of traffic and operation police harassed drivers of public transport to extract money but the ratio of such incidents increased alarmingly in the month of Ramazan.

“Nowadays if our drivers lack any of the required documents, they have to give double money as compared to what they had given previously to police in the name of Eidi…we are now used to it,” he remarked.

He alleged that the whole activity of Eidi collection had patronage of high police officials as policemen could not indulge in such practices on a large scale without their support.

He said that traffic police officials were paying no heed towards regulating vehicular traffic in the rush hours while the job was being performed by volunteers and city government’s community police. “I must appreciate the performance of the community police because I did not receive a single complaint against them for the last two months,” he added.