LAHORE, May 6: The National Highways and Motorway Police will take charge of the National Highway from Karachi to Peshawer next year, the Communications Division secretary, Iftikhar Rashid, said on Monday.

He was speaking at a ceremony to hand over the 90-kilometre central section of the National Highway between Lahore and Okara to the NHMP at the Shahpur Interchange near Thokar Niazbeg here.

He said 1,500 NHMP officials were being trained at Sihala, Hangu and Karachi. The force controls the Karachi-Hyderabad section.

Mr Rashid said the NHMP officials had been selected from the provincial police departments. He said their salaries and fringe benefits were better than their counterparts but not excessive.

IG Motorways Police Ziaul Hasan told about 200 NHMP men, equipped with speed radars, cameras, radar guns and laser guns would control traffic on Lahore-Okara section of the National Highway. He said they had been trained in providing first-aid to accident victims.

He said that there had been a remarkable decrease in incidence of crime and accidents on the National Highway sections handed over to NHMP. The number of accidents had decreased by nearly 50 percent and the incidence of highway robbery had been eliminated.

DIG Ahmad Nasim said there was a need for creating awareness among motorists about traffic rules to further reduce the number of accidents on highways. He said lack of awareness and respect for traffic rules killed an average of 700 people in road accidents in the country every year. The NHMP, he said, had four missions: service, rescue, counselling and guidance.