The differences between the provincial police and transport departments over the authority to issue driving licences have resulted in the backlog of about one lakh licences in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, officials revealed here on Friday.

In the past, the authority to issue driving licences was with the traffic police, but the previous Awami National Party-led provincial government in its last months had transferred this responsibility to transport department for unknown reasons.

The decision was taken in so haste that the transport department was not even ready for taking the charge due to unavailability of infrastructure and manpower, while its officials were also not well-versed in the procedure. The transport department has established its licence department in Peshawar, but in rest of the 24 districts it has no infrastructure and human resource for the purpose.

While the two departments claim to have the real authority for issuing driving licences, the applicants are confused as to where to go for obtaining the licence. The drivers also complain that the police do not regard the licence issued by the transport department as valid. The worst affected are the professional drivers as they need heavy duty licences.

The controversy over who would issue the driving licences in KP had been created by the previous ANP-led government which did not relieve the traffic police of the duty, but handed the task over to the transport department without providing it the relevant staff, official data,equipment, etc.

According to an insider, the confusion has also increased the tendency of corruption as the touts, demanding at least Rs4,000 for a single licence, bring in the applicants with the assurance that they would help them avoid the long queues and driving tests.

An official source said that the traffic police’s driving licence branch was a source of heavy income for many because the uneducated drivers were facilitated there to get the licence approved from relevant officials without appearance in the test and interview.

Chief Minister Pervez Khattak had about two months ago visited the traffic police headquarters, inspected the licence branch and then formed a committee with Senior Minister Sirajul Haq as its head to resolve the issue by submitting final recommendations. However, this committee had also failed to pay a single visit or hold a meeting in this regard.

When contacted, an official of the transport department, Khawar Abbas, said that his department had the authority to issue the licences because the powers had been handed over to it by the previous provincial government. “At present, we are allowed to issue all kinds of licences for light and heavy vehicles, while the police department is issuing licences only for light vehicles,” he said.

“The transport department still has no equipment and human resources in the province to start issuing the licences in different districts of the KP because for the purpose it will have to recruit dozens of employees, including assistant directors, and purchase equipment which will further burden the provincial exchequer,” said information technology director Aftab while talking to Dawn.

The controversy over who would issue the driving licences, he said, had been created by the previous ANP-le government which did not relieve the traffic police of the duty, but handed the task over to the transport department without providing it the relevant staff, official data, equipment, etc.

In such a situation, the applicants continue visiting both the traffic police headquarters and transport department. The finance department had also stopped payment to police for purchase of licence cards from the market and thus the backlog had gradually risen to one lakh, forcing the people to queue up everyday with the hope to get the licence. The actual sufferers are the professional drivers who have to produce the licence at every checkpoint.

The entire data of the old licences, he said, was with the police department and the transport department had no record of the licences issued in the past.

“In case a driver wants to renew a fake driving licence then how the transport department will check it without record,” the official posed a question.

Our drivers have to face serious problems because the traffic police both in KP and Punjab provinces are regularly checking the documents, particularly the driving licence, and those who fail to produce the same have to pay penalties,” said transporters’ president Khan Zaman Afridi. He said that for the transporters it did not make a difference whether they had the licence issued by the transport department or the traffic police.

The prevailing confusion needs to be ended once and for all so that the drivers could get the licence easily after payment of the relevant fee, he said.

Mr Afridi said there was confusion about the legality of the licence because each of the two departments had been claiming that the licence issued by it was genuine. He said that the government itself was responsible for creating this confusion.

He suggested that the government should properly hand over the responsibility to one department and stop the other department from issuing licences.

SSP Traffic Faisal Shehzad, when contacted by this correspondent, said that only the traffic police had the authority to issue the driving licence and the transport department had nothing to do with the matter.

He said that in all the provinces only the traffic police had such an authority.

“We are bringing reforms in the traffic police system and for this purpose Inspector General of Police Nasir Khan Durrani has already asked me to visit Islamabad and Lahore to get support of the relevant officials of police and traffic engineering departments for solution of the traffic problems in Peshawar,” the SSP said.

Mr Shehzad said that the finance department had released funds to the police for some 32,000 licences and thus the issue of backlog would be resolved to some extent.

“In the entire country the driving licences are issued by the police department because the police can easily check traffic violations,” he said.

Published in Dawn, June 22nd , 2014