KARACHI: Riding big heavy white and silver motorcycles in their sparkling white uniforms, they look like a bevy of swans on the city main roads. Perhaps that’s why some approach them to see if they are for real.

“Some are so mesmerised that they even want to touch us,” laughs Lady Police Constable (LPC) Ambreen Neelum of the Women Bike Squad of Karachi Traffic Police as she narrates how an elderly woman driver got out of her car to do so. “We get so many women drivers telling us how good we look or how much they appreciate our presence on the roads,” she tells Dawn.

“Some like our uniforms. They say we look great, that we look very smart in them,” she says, adding that she even got this comment from another lady in uniform, a Pakistan Air Force officer, no less,” says LPC Neelum.

“It is good that they appreciate us and like us because it makes our job of spreading awareness about road safety easier.”

She says she has five pairs of uniforms, which she launders herself with care. Her day starts early as she tends to family before heading off to work. “I prepare breakfast, feed the kids before getting ready and reporting for duty at 10am sharp every day,” she says, adding that it is also helpful to have a very understanding life partner here. LPC Neelum is married to a policeman.

‘We get so many women drivers telling us how good we look or how much they appreciate our presence on the roads’

The Women Bike Squad of Karachi Traffic Police is a recent addition. “We are around two months old now, that is if you include our training period, too. Otherwise, we started official duty in mid-July,” says LPC Neelum. She attributes all their good work and achievements to her senior LPC Samavia Abbasi.

“She was the first woman rider in our department. We used to admire her so much but were afraid to follow in her footsteps. But then she persuaded us to join her. ‘Why don’t you learn to ride a motorbike? You are going to love it,’ she would say to us. She is one great motivator.

“I knew how to ride a bicycle from childhood. I was taught by my brothers. I must have been 11 or 12 when I was allowed by my mother to get groceries for her from our neighbourhood shops. So it was not that hard for me to try riding a motorcycle as the balance was there. I was just concerned if I could handle a heavy police bike but it was not that difficult as it turned out. I started training on a 70cc motorcycle and was soon promoted to 125cc, which I rode for a week before going on to the police 150cc bike,” she says.

“These bikes are heavier than us even,” she laughs.

LPC Razia Sher Khan, also a part of the Women Bike Squad, adds that she herself owns a 70cc bike but rides a 150cc heavy bike when on duty. “The only difference, as my colleague LPC Neelum says, is the weight of the bike. But then riding is no different. The 70cc bike is kick-started but the 150cc has a self-starting system. It would have been a different story had we also had to kick-start it,” she points out.

When asked if wearing a helmet is a bother, especially in this heat, the ladies shrug and shake their heads.

“No, it was never a bother as we had trained with helmets on. And we also have side mirrors on our bikes so our helmets also don’t constrict our side view as some motorcyclists complain or use as an excuse to not wear their helmets,” says LPC Neelum.

“But it is our duty to make them understand the importance of wearing a helmet. It saves lives,” she is very firm about this. “Thankfully, people we lecture on road safety listen to us. We also take care to remain extra polite because in this heat we also encounter a lot of frustration and anger among the riders and motorists. We have encountered road rage, too, in young people mostly. Quite frankly, we find good and bad people everywhere though we treat all the same way, with respect and kindness,” she says. “Our primary job is to spread awareness.”

And does the heat also go to her head? LPC Neelum smiles as she says that it gets to her skin more. “Riding motorbikes in the sun has tanned all of us. We do use sunblock but there is a limit to how much sunblock can also protect us,” she says.

So what’s next on her agenda? “I’m learning to drive now,” she chuckles.

The Women Bike Squad’s pioneer and teacher, LPC Samavia Abbasi, meanwhile, says that she was taught how to ride a bike by her male colleagues in the traffic police as then there was no other female to teach her.

Initially, she was posted on Sharea Faisal. “I would chase female drivers who would commit any traffic violation and issue them challans. It was better that we handle the women, and there was always a need for more like myself on our roads,” she adds.

Soon after reporting for work, the LPCs were spotted patrolling as well as controlling traffic around the Metropole Hotel and on Sharea Faisal right up to Star Gate. According to the traffic police department, apart from their work of spreading awareness of road safety and the wearing of helmets, and regulating traffic, the LPCs are also responsible for resolving traffic jams or any complications during road accidents.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2021