KARACHI, March 17: The campaign launched by the traffic police to check violation of traffic rules by the drivers of public transport, and create a sense of responsibility in them, appears to have met utter failure.

The campaign began on Jan 8 and since then the traffic police have arrested nearly 1000 drivers on account of reckless driving or violation of traffic rules under Section 279 of the PPC. But no change is noticeable yet in the attitude of the drivers. Traffic jams are a familiar sight on major arteries and roads in different parts of the city, mainly because of unreasonable attitude of the drivers of buses, minibuses and coaches, who honour traffic rules more in breach than observance.

The main reason for violation of rules and regulations on the part of the drivers of commercial vehicles is stated to be the ‘monthly payments’ they make to the traffic police.

A transport operator, who operates a dozen minibuses on route W-11, said: “We pay on weekly or monthly basis a certain amount to the section officers of all the traffic police sections on our route and they, in turn, provide the ‘security’ we need.”

The traffic police seem helpless in the face of the heavy traffic jams in Liaquatabad, caused by the complete disregard for traffic rules shown by buses and minibuses.

The tracks for buses and minibuses in Liaquatabad have been made by bifurcating S.M. Taufeeq Road on both sides to ease the vehicular traffic flow, especially during rush-hours.

Much as the constables of the traffic police might try to force them into doing so, the drivers hardly ever use their allocated tracks. They use the portion for private vehicles and stop their vehicles wherever they want to lift and drop passengers, creating problems for motorists.

Another reason for the frequent traffic jams is the parking of vehicles at the ‘no parking zone’ on S.M. Taufiq Road, which makes the carriageway narrower on both sides and hinders the movement of vehicular traffic.

Arrests made and actions taken during the campaign are not without discrimination as the majority of buses, minibuses and coaches are owned by retired or in-service police officials and their relatives, or by others with influence of status.

A driver is punished not because he has broken the rules, but because his employer is not influential enough and has little “say” in the matters.

For this reason the behaviour of the drivers of public transport, particularly those of minibuses and coaches, remains unchanged. They continue to violate traffic signals, overtake other vehicles, stop as and when they see fit , even in the middle of roads, and take sharp turns without caring to use indicators.

Are they ever ashamed of committing these violations? Far from it. They take great pride in being “reckless”.

This mentality is reinforced by lack of proper training. There is no arrangement to teach them how and how not to driver a public vehicle. Short training programmes arranged by the traffic police in the recent past proved futile as the drivers who were trained chose to forget on duty what they were taught in the programme.