A FEW weeks ago, I was accompanying an ambulance carrying the body of my beloved mother. We had to reach our native village in time to proceed with the funeral. I took the Lyari Expressway and was intercepted by a motorway police officer for overspeeding. I tried to ignore his signals, but was ultimately stopped by another officer at the exit close to Sohrab Goth.

I was asked to pay a fine of Rs2,500. Unfortunately, I did not have cash at the time as I had left in an emergency. Thus, I requested the officer to let me pay the fine through my credit card. To my utter surprise, he said no such facility was available. The officer demanded cash, and his behaviour soon turned rude. Upon my inquiry, he responded that if I could not pay in cash, he would seize my vehicle. This was completely illogical, but he remained adamant.

There is a worldwide practice that if traffic violators do not have ready cash, or if they do not want to pay the challan on the spot, they may submit the original documents, like the vehicle’s papers and driver’s licence, and pay the fine later at their convenience within the stipulated time.

If the motorway police administration, for whatever reason, is not willing to trust the people this much, even after withholding their original documents, it must provide a debit/credit card-charging machine to its patrolling officials.

If the officials can carry a tablet and a challan receipt generation machine, the patrol officials can surely keep with them a card-charging apparatus as well.

Majid Ali
Karachi

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2025