RAWALPINDI: After months of delays in issuing nearly 32,000 digital driving licenses to the applicants in Rawalpindi district, the City Traffic Police have begun issuing “e-driving license” digital copies that can be legally used.

Since driving licensing is centralised in the province and cards are prepared in Lahore and dispatched directly to the applicants via Pakistan Post, nearly 32,000 applicants who had cleared their driving tests and fulfilled other requirements have been waiting for their driving license cards for the last two to three months.

In April 2026, over 15,545 candidates applied for fresh driving licenses, 718 people applied for endorsement, while 4,800 applied for renewal of their licenses, a police spokesman said.

Other than that, the City Traffic Police Rawalpindi has been concerned after it received 13,000 driving license cards which could not be delivered by the Pakistan Post for months due to certain reasons; the CTP has been making phone calls to the applicants to come to them to collect their driving license cards.

Chief Traffic Officer Farhan Aslam confirmed that they have received 13,000 driving license cards, which could not be delivered by the post office authorities due to certain reasons.

He said that after the driving license cards were received, they were distributed among the in-charges of various wings of the City Traffic Police and assigned to make contact with the applicants so that they could collect their driving license cards from the CTP office.

The CTO said that they have successfully delivered 4,000 driving license cards to the applicants so far; however, efforts by the traffic staff were underway to deliver the remaining.

A senior traffic official revealed that nearly 15,545 driving licenses (cars, motorcycles, and LTV) are processed at the CTP Headquarters in Rawalpindi every month.

“Nearly 32,000 driving license cards have been pending for the last two months in Lahore traffic office,” a traffic police official said and added, “All the district headquarters of traffic police should have a facility for printing of cards to avoid the delays.

Due to the centralised system, the license cards are prepared in Lahore and dispatched directly to the applicants via Pakistan Post.

The CTP has been facing the public due to the centralised system (process of printing), as the applicants had to wait for months to get their license card. For the public convenience, the CTP has started issuing “e- driving license” digital copies that can be legally used.

“Once the applicant qualifies for the driving license, he/she is issued an ‘e-driving license’, a Traffic Police Punjab copy which can be preserved by lamination and can be legally used,” the CTO said. Another applicant said that he had applied for a fresh driving license in February 2024, and he has still been waiting for the driving license.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2026