GRANTED that Karachi’s traffic is frightful, but the state’s plan to lock up violators in jail for up to two years is a tad extreme. As reported in this paper, from next week traffic police in the metropolis intends to punish those who violate traffic signals and the one-way rule, as well as transporters who ferry passengers on the rooftops of their vehicles, with jail sentences ranging from six months to two years. No doubt, the law of the jungle prevails on Karachi’s roads, with motorists violating every rule in the book. It is not uncommon to see vehicles driving on the wrong side of the road on speedy thoroughfares, signals broken with reckless abandon and speed limits ignored with impunity. The results are deadly: one figure from 2013 shows that over 1,100 people died in road accidents, while there were over 33,000 injuries. Moreover, drivers’ indiscipline causes gridlock and bottlenecks, resulting in wastage of time and fuel, as well as frayed nerves. So a fully-fledged campaign to make the city’s roads safer is long overdue.

However, are stiff jail terms the best way to address Karachi’s traffic woes? After all, there appears to be a better example of dealing with traffic chaos from another major city: Lahore. In the Punjab capital, the traffic system has improved considerably due to the introduction of wardens. Though the system is not perfect, the wardens have considerably improved matters by handing down fines to errant motorists and — more importantly — not backing off even if bribes are offered. Hence, if the administration wants to clean up Karachi’s traffic, it must ensure that officials enforce the rules already on the books and do not relent if attempts are made to grease palms or flaunt ‘influence’. It would be a good idea to run regular traffic awareness campaigns and punish repeat offenders with hefty fines. Additionally, thinking in the longer term, the state must address infrastructural weaknesses — such as decrepit public transport and rampant encroachments — that add to Karachi’s traffic chaos.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2015

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