KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has directed the authorities concerned to take action against illegal charged parking at over 30 places in the city.

A two-judge bench, headed by Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi, also asked traffic police and other respondents to file a compliance report on the next date of hearing.

When the bench took up for hearing a set of identical petitions filed against charged parking in different parts of the provincial metropolis, a traffic police officer filed a report on behalf of the DIG-traffic.

The traffic police in its report stated that 43 cases were registered and 55 persons arrested over unauthorised and illegal charged parking in the city, while 49,075 traffic tickets were issued for double/triple parking and a fine of Rs24.5 million was imposed from January 1 to Sept 24.

Traffic police issued nearly 50,000 tickets and fined Rs24.5m in nine months, SHC told

The counsel for one of the petitioners also filed a statement in court and submitted that unauthorised and illegal charged parking were being run at and around over 30 places including main roads, shopping malls, plazas, markets, hospitals and other public spaces in the city.

The lawyer further argued that the most affected areas were Saddar, Kharadar, Jama Cloth Market, Bolton Market, Clifton, I. I. Chundrigar Road, M. A. Jinnah Road and Akbar Road as well as the Sindh High Court, City Courts, Civil Hospital Karachi, Karachi Press Club and others areas.

The bench in its order said that action must be taken against illegal parking in the areas as pointed out in the statement filed by the lawyer for one of the petitioners and sought a compliance report on the next hearing to be fixed after four weeks.

The traffic police in its report maintained that all the SSPs/traffic districts of Karachi had strictly been directed to take maximum action against unauthorised and illegal charged parking as per law.

However, it submitted that the basic function of Karachi traffic police was to control/regulate vehicular traffic on the roads of the metropolis and to implement motor vehicle laws. The traffic police also submitted that the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), district municipal corporations (DMCs) and cantonment boards were granting contracts of charged parking while traffic police had raised this chronic issue with the authorities concerned in several meetings, asking them to take the traffic police on board before granting such contracts to avoid traffic issues due to insufficient road width and double/haphazard parking on the roads.

The traffic police further submitted that another report had also been filed on behalf DIG traffic in November 2021 in one of these petitions about 124 charged parking spots in the city being run by KMC, DMCs and cantonment boards and 88 of them were on main thoroughfares.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2023