Police told to take strict action against violators of traffic rules from January 1

Sindh Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ghulam Nabi Memon on Thursday conducted a media briefing regarding a traffic awareness campaign initiated by the police. He said action would be taken against juvenile driving, including registration of FIRs.

The media briefing was chaired by the IGP at the Central Police Office. He was accompanied by Karachi Additional IG Javed Alam Odho, DIG Iqbal Dara of the Driving Licence Karachi and other senior officers.

The police chief announced the launch of a regular awareness campaign regarding the implementation and enforcement of traffic laws at the provincial level. “We need to create awareness among people about traffic accident prevention,” he said and added that police had started an awareness campaign in this regard.

He said the awareness campaign had begun on Thursday and it would be continued till December 31. IGP Memon said the traffic rules would be strictly implemented from January 2025 onwards. He informed the media that Punjab was conducting a similar awareness campaign.

He said drivers not possessing the driving licence were found involved in accidents. He explained that such drivers were untrained, did not possess a driving licence and most of them were underage. He asserted that to stop such practices, the police had announced a campaign and after December 31, 2024, only those who possessed a driving licence shall drive vehicles on roads.

The IGP said that in order to facilitate the general public, the traffic police had started issuance of an online driving permit and the Driving Licence Karachi DIG had begun issuing online driving licences in collaboration with the IT branch and this service was available all over Sindh.

He warned that action would be taken against those driving vehicles without a licence. The IGP, however, told his subordinates to not conduct general checking for the purpose as stopping each and every vehicle would cause disturbance.

It has been directed that in case of a traffic rule violation, police would stop the vehicle and the first question they would ask would be about the driving permit. If the driver did not possess the licence, he would be fined and issued a warning. If the vehicle driver did not apply for the licence after the warning, legal action, including registration of an FIR, would be taken and the vehicle seized.

The IGP said that earlier they launched several campaigns in collaboration with the media on various important matters such as aerial firing and saw good results of those efforts. He added that the media and police must work together for good results.

The Karachi additional IG said the job of the police was to control crime as well as traffic. According to a report, 6.5 million vehicles are currently plying on the roads of Karachi. The report identifies that most of the time, motorcyclists are responsible for the traffic accidents. However, they are also the fatality in most of the cases as 57 per cent accident fatalities are motorcyclists.

The city police chief said they had also conducted a survey in Karachi and found that 75 per cent of the motorcycle riders were either underage or they did not possess a driving licence. He added that as per the IGP’s directives, warning shall be issued to violators of traffic rules and after the campaign, action would be taken.

The Karachi additional IG also requested the parents to not allow their underage children to drive or else action would be taken. He said registration of FIRs could cause trouble for such children in the future as they shall face difficulty in obtaining clearance certificate, passport or foreign visa.

To a query, IGP Memon said public safety was mandatory and the transport associations should understand and follow the rules. He explained that there was an open door policy for the transport associations to discuss the issues but they should not put the public safety at risk.

He added that he had asked his subordinates to thoroughly investigate the accidents in order to fix the responsibility. Answering a question, DIG Dara said there was no agent mafia in or around the driving licence branches.

The IGP said the media should conduct a sting operation if it had come to their knowledge that agent mafias were operating outside driving licence branches. He said he had tried to appoint good officers at the driving licence branches.