THE Sindh government never misses an opportunity to highlight its self-proclaimed commitment to promoting inclusivity for people with disabilities. Also, adding yet another feather in its cap, it has introduced the controversial e-challan mechanism with astronomical fines even for minor traffic violations. Against this backdrop, I see a strange contradiction whenever I commute on my two-wheeler to office every day.

Along Sharea Faisal, I have repeatedly witnessed motorcyclists freely using ramps meant for physically-challenged people using wheelchair to help them cross from one side to another. The misuse by motor-cyclists, as can be seen in the accompanying picture, to suit their convenience is rampant because traffic officials prefer to ‘ignore’ it.

Now, when the ‘ever-efficient’ Karachi traffic police have installed high-powered CCTV cameras backed by artificial intelligence (AI) to issue e-challans to those violating traffic rules, I wonder why traffic police and their cameras have not been able to capture this gross violation and misuse of pedestrian bridge meant for special people. There are U-turns available at Nursery and Baloch Colony flyovers, but motorcyclists prefer to use the ramps, blatantly violating traffic rules.

This paints a gloomy picture. While the rights of the physically-challenged people are being trampled upon in front of the ‘law’, if there is any, the e-challan seems to be a scheme to punish only those who happen to commit some minor offence even inadvertently.

It looks as if the government has failed in safeguarding the rights of the special people, who need more of our empathy, accessible infrastructure and support, and in holding real traffic offenders who do not give a hoot about any law.

M. Rafique Zakaria
Karachi

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2025