LAHORE: The chief traffic officer on Tuesday suspended a warden from service for allegedly taking bribe from a motorcyclist.

Action was taken after a section of the electronic media aired a footage of the warden taking Rs200 bribe from the motorcyclist on Jail Road. The incident occurred on Saturday while the action was taken after airing of the footage on Tuesday evening.

One Abubakar was stopped by warden Shahbaz Pervaiz for using mobile phone on motorcycle. He issued the ticket to Abubakar with Rs200 fine. He allegedly got Rs200 fine from Abubakar to deposit it with the bank himself and returned the registration book to the traffic law violator. Abubakar, who was accompanied by a friend, got the whole incident filmed on his mobile phone and released it to the media.

However, warden Shahbaz demanded an impartial inquiry into the matter, claiming that the offender had trapped him. After the issuance of the ticket, he added, Abubakar returned sometime later with an excuse that he couldn’t deposit the fine as the banks remained closed on Saturday, Sunday and Monday (Kashmir holiday). He requested Shahbaz to deposit the fine in the bank on his behalf on Tuesday as he was going to his hometown and took back the documents of the motorcycle.

On their request, Shahbaz said, he had taken Rs200 from Abubakar along with the challan ticket and deposited the same with a bank on Tuesday. He appealed to the CTO to review his decision of suspending him from service and hold an inquiry into the matter.

NEW WARDENS: The city traffic police on Tuesday received 412 new wardens, including 22 female officials.

They were hired recently by a board which was headed by the DIG Traffic.

CTO Rai Ijaz, while giving them a reception at the Manawan Police Lines, announced that the accommodation for the new officials had been arranged at the lines. He announced eight-hour duty time for them besides medical facilities.

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2018