KARACHI: A majority of Karachi drivers would face a big challenge while bringing their vehicles on roads as the traffic police could arrest and jail them for up to a month for not having their driving licences from Monday (today).

According to official figures, only 1.2 million people in the metropolis have driving licences; whereas the total number of registered vehicles in Karachi is 3.8m.

DIG-Traffic Dr Amir Sheikh warned the Karachi drivers to get their licences issued/renewed within the shortest possible time as they could be sent to jail under a provision of the Motor Vehicle Ordinance.

“For those people who have their driving licences but they do not carry with them, we would give them a chance to bring the document and show to us to get their vehicles released,” said DIG Sheikh. “Those who do not have licences altogether or have the fake ones would face a harsh penalty and imprisonment up to one month. Their vehicles would also be impounded.”

He claimed that the entire exercise was aimed at streamlining driving on city roads.

When asked to specify the rule which allowed the law enforcement agency to arrest and jail a citizen just for not having his/her driving licence, the DIG claimed that there was a provision in the Motor Vehicle Ordinance which permitted imprisonment for those who were found driving a vehicle without a licence, or indulged in rash driving.

“Except Pakistan, one cannot even imagine of driving a vehicle in any part of the world without a driving licence,” he said. “Here you would find even underage boys driving cars on key roads. The city has 3.8 million registered vehicles but only 1.2 million registered drivers with licences. The procedure of acquiring a driving licence gives you a sense of responsibility and awareness of traffic rules to a large extent.”

The fresh drive is seen as a second aggressive campaign by the Karachi traffic police as in June this year, they declared all motorcyclists and their pillion riders, whether male or female, to wear helmets in the metropolis. Later, women were exempted from the curb on the directives of the Sindh police chief. But gradually the campaign lost its vigour.

“We are giving a week-long grace period to private vehicles’ owners or drivers to get their licences issued or renewed,” the DIG-traffic said. “The drivers of commercial vehicles would face action from Monday (today). You would see there would be no relaxation.”

While admitting that there would be so much pressure on driving licence branches in the city after the traffic police’s announcement, the DIG claimed that all arrangements to help a maximum number of applicants had been made.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2015

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