ISLAMABAD: Officials from the armed forces were found to be at the top of a group of 71 VIPs who have been caught by the Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) for violating traffic regulations in the city, ITP officials have said.

Officials said 71 VIPs were stopped by the police for violating traffic rules this year. Of those stopped 33 people were members of the armed forces who were stopped for various violations and fined.

Bureaucrats were the second most-stopped, with 16 caught by ITP officials for traffic violations, followed by nine MNA and MPAs, six diplomats, five journalists and one member of the judiciary.

The ITP issued 758,134 fines worth approximately Rs220.2 million (Rs220,222,800) for traffic violations this year, officials said.

The most common of these violations were lane violations, with 53,155 motorists being stopped for them this year. The second most common violation was vehicles parked in no-parking and prohibited areas, with 44,337 violators.

Riding motorcycles without helmets were the third most common violation, with 44,000 motorcyclists being fined for the practice, although officials said the number of violations was higher than expected.

A total of 39,363 people were fined for unfastened seatbelts, followed by 31,767 for careless driving, 26,487 for decorative or unauthorised registration plates 24,156 for using mobile phones while driving and 17,916 for driving without a licence.

In addition, 48,619 transporters were fined for overloading, followed by 34,047 for interrupting the flow of traffic, 33,086 for route violations, 22,543 for violating traffic signals and 15,048 for parking at bus stops.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2017