THIS is with reference to the letter ‘Fear and fines’ (June 7). Indeed, traffic enforcement in Punjab is fast resembling a revenue-maximising enterprise rather than a public safety service. The situation during Eid holidays was particularly disturbing. Across Lahore, police pickets reportedly mushroomed on major roads, where families — especially motorbike riders with children — were stopped, fined and subjected to unnecessarily harsh treatment. For many, what should have been a rare moment of joy amid economic hardship turned into an ordeal of anxiety and humiliation.

This raises a fundamental question: when did the traffic police assume the role of tax collectors? Is the objective road safety, or is it to plug fiscal gaps at the expense of ordinary citizens? Such aggressive enforcement, particularly during festive holidays, reflects not discipline, but insensitivity — and not governance, but opportunism.

At a time when most people are already reeling under soaring fuel prices and crippling food inflation, this relentless penalisation appears less like law enforcement and more like institutionalised extraction. The staggering sums collected do not signal improved compliance; they point, instead, to a system that preys on vulnerability.

If this approach continues unchecked, it risks pushing an already frustrated public towards open resentment. Laws, when enforced without fairness or compassion, lose their legitimacy. The government must take immediate notice of the matter.

M. Shaban Uppal
Lahore

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2026