HYDERABAD, March 19: No complaint of corruption has been filed against any member of the National Highways and Motorway Police during the past five years, Sindh Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Chaudhary Iftikhar Hussain said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the Hyderabad-Hala Sector South (N-5) near the Hyderabad Toll Plaza here, he said that the force had introduced a new culture in Pakistan, adding that its civil behaviour, discipline and enforcement of law without any fear or favour was exemplary.

Praising the performance of the Motorway Police, he said that accidents on the national highways had been eliminated while crimes on the highways had been marginalized.

Mr Hussain said that officers of the highways’ police were rendering yeomen services by inculcating traffic sense among the people, specially students, adding that the main causes of road accidents included ignorance of traffic laws and reckless driving.

The minister also paid tribute to the Edhi Foundation, which had set up centres on the highways providing immediate ambulance service to the injured besides praising MPA Syed Jalal Shah Jamote for giving land, free of cost, on the Hyderabad-Hala Highway for the construction of a Musafir Khana.

Sindh Chief Minister Sardar Ali Mohammad Khan Mahar was scheduled to perform the inaugural ceremony but he could not make it because of his pre-occupations.

The Inspector General, High-ways, Ziaul Hassan, on the occasion said that since 1997, accidents on the Karachi-Hyderabad sector had decreased by 70 per cent due to efforts of the highway police, while crime on the highway had been reduced by 95 per cent.

Referring to the report of the National Accountability Bureau-2002, Mr Hassan said that the report had indicated that the Motorway and Highway Police was the only department in which there was no corruption.

MPA Syed Jalal Shah Jamote of Matiari, who offered a free plot for the construction of a Musafir Khana, said that there was a blind turn on the Matiari bypass, adding that the Highway Authority should do something about the accident-prone turn.

Manager of Shell Transport Manhdi Akhtar Rizvi and General Manager of the National Highway Authority Sindh Mian Abdul Haq also spoke on the occasion.

Later, commendatory certificates were distributed by the minister among the highway police officials. A large number of police officers, including DIG, Highway Police, Shoukat Hayyat, attended the ceremony.