ISLAMABAD: Speakers at a seminar underlined the need of imposing carbon emission tax in order to reduce the health problems.

The seminar on Road Safety was organised by the Quaid-i-Azam University’s Department of Sociology to raise the awareness and propose effective measures about the issue of road safety in Pakistan.

The seminar was based on the findings of a research project on road safety to understand the attitude and behavior of commuters. The project was funded by Higher Education Commission.

Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Mohammad Hamza Shafqaat was the chief guest at the event.

Sociology Department Chairman and principal investigator of the project on road safety Dr Mohammad Zaman shared the preliminary findings of the research survey.

Dr Zaman highlighted the critical state of road safety in global and national perspective. Further, he proposed sustainable measures to counter this situation with the focus on effective licensing system, electronic surveillance, smart parking and effective legislation.

Besides, he also proposed a smart public transport system. He asserted there was a need to impose carbon emission tax in order to reduce the health problems.

Deputy Commissioner Hamza Shafqaat shared his views on the issue of road safety and existing initiatives taken to improve the situation and make roads safer.

He praised the efforts of sociology department and the role it played in highlighting this issue. He also discussed the socio-cultural barriers at communal level in implementation of projects in which social scientists and youth can play a significant contribution.

A joint collaborative initiative started between the Islamabad deputy commissioner and sociology department. The DC offered a letter of support to the chairman to continue his work on road safety in Islamabad.

He further proposed to engage the students of QAU in awareness activities and seminars to be carried by DC office.

He stressed the need for meaningful collaboration to better understand and deal with road safety challenges.

Additional Deputy Commissioner Kamran Cheema also highlighted the efforts of the Islamabad Transport Authority to maintain road safety.

He highlighted how the ICT administration was facing problems in implementing the law and orders on roads.

He stressed that the ICT administration would launch innovative solutions with the assistance of sociology department.

Dr Imran Sabir, Assistant professor at Sociology Department presented closing remarks in which he thanked all of the guests and participants of the seminar.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2020