Newly appointed Karachi Traffic Police (KTP) chief Syed Pir Mohammed Shah on Monday directed officers to strictly implement timing for dumpers and heavy vehicles from 10pm to 6am amid an uptick in related traffic accidents.

The Sindh government had replaced the KTP chief on Friday. The development came following a growing incidence of traffic accidents, mostly involving dumpers and other heavy vehicles.

Addressing officers at the Scouts Auditorium today, the new traffic police chief said that traffic management was an important challenge which was his priority.

He directed officers to strictly implement timing for dumpers and heavy vehicles from 10pm to 6am while illegal water tankers without QR codes were to be seized.

Actions against vehicles with tinted glasses, fancy number plates, unauthorised police lights and hooters should be ensured and shops dealing with such things should be sealed with the help of local police while bike-riders without helmets be taken to task, he said.

Shah added that drivers without licenses not only be fined but such vehicles should also be seized while cases should be registered against drivers of commercial vehicles who were involved in reckless driving.

Encroachments must be eliminated in collaboration with local police and a crackdown should be launched against “extra-seaters” rickshaws while underage driving should be curbed, the traffic police chief said.

He said that vehicles being driven by underage drivers should also be seized, double parking must be cracked down upon and a crackdown should be initiated against the illegal “parking mafia”.

Vehicles without fitness certificates should be impounded while strict departmental action should be initiated over corruption in the traffic police, the new KTP chief ordered.

The metropolis has seen a rise in fatal accidents involving dumper trucks and water tankers which sparked widespread outrage against the traffic police, with opposition parties, the governor and the Karachi mayor, calling for restrictions on the movement of heavy vehicles in the metropolis in the daytime to prevent further loss of precious of lives.

The opposition Jamaat-i-Islami and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan have accused the traffic police of taking bribes to allow heavy traffic to move freely in the city during daytime.

The strong criticism came following the tragic death of as many as nine persons, including a couple and an employee of the Pakistan Navy, who, according to the traffic police, were killed in six traffic accidents across the city on February 6.