Traffic violations in the federal capital

Islamabad: The flow of traffic indicates the behaviour and social etiquettes of the people living in the city and the traffic organisers are always responsible for the good or bad impact of traffic behaviour.

Indiscipline traffic irritates the road users who believe in smooth and organised travel. The implementation of traffic rules in Islamabad reflects in the adjacent areas including Rawalpindi.

“It is the prime responsibility of the Islamabad Traffic Police (ICT) to keep the image of the ICT traffic high but the officials responsible for managing the traffic seen irrelevant or helpless during the traffic muddle”, a group of young students expressing their viewpoint said.

Unruly or indiscipline traffic leaves a bad impact upon the people visiting the city which is observed as the reflection of the social behaviour of the inhabitants, they maintained.

Unfortunately, the general public harangue that the federal capital traffic police have fallen in the category of average class structure of traffic policing because every violence of traffic rules by the drivers, could be observed on the roads, while the Islamabad Traffic Police (ICT), in the past has been rated high and enjoyed the best organised and corruption-free department of the country and it was recognised worldwide.

“The ITP was enjoying a good icon for their glittering presentation and was receiving wide applause and the past image will back soon as the ITP has tightened their belts to make this organisation as an icon of excellence again,” an ITP officer expressing their past dream, said.

But now, one can watch a police vehicle breaking the traffic rules, smoking cigarettes openly during duty hours, found busy in gossips away from their duty point violent traffic in the federal capital.

Traffic violations result in deadly mishaps, soaking roads with the blood of innocent people, just to enjoy rapidity. One can observe a violation of traffic rules when you will see bike riders driving without wearing helmets, car drivers without fastening seatbelts and listening to mobile phones during driving, especially, public service drivers. According to a survey, over 10 per cent people are found violating such traffic rules due to the inattentive attitude of the ITP. Who, most of the time found busy in gossips away from their duty points, cigarette smoking during duty hours, using mobile phones.

The uniformed police personnel are frequently observed driving police vehicles found breaking traffic signals and using mobile phones.

Lane violation has become routine infringement at main roads of the city, causing accidents. The road users, specially, bike riders should be bound to remain in the yellow line in the extreme left lane while the public service and heavy vehicles should be kept in extreme left lane. The right lane should be used as the fast lane while the drivers should only use the middle lane of the road.

“Bikes and public service vehicles create traffic disarray and cause fatal accidents,” road users said. The traffic police could not manage to keep the bikes riders in the extreme left yellow lane and public service vehicles in the left lane, they maintained. “Both, bike riders and public service drivers drive recklessly, ruining traffic rules causing incurable mishaps”, they added.

While, the traffic managers claim that they have initiated the drive concentrating on three points – keeping bike-riders within yellow lane and public service and heavy vehicles in extreme left lane and keeping right lane as a fast lane, but it never happened.

The officers maintained that the ITP have overcome the one-wheeling races on different highways of Islamabad.

The police authorities, on the other hand, have decided to reshuffle old, lethargic, pot-bellied official and the personnel working for long time but doing nothing.

The car drivers, when asked, desired to keep the bike riders and public service vehicles within limits but the bike riders opposed the change saying, “The bindings on poor would not be accepted because that roads are not made only for rich people, using luxurious cars.” While, the PSV drivers when asked said, “How the police can change our habits (to violate the rules)?”

But the IGP, when asked, expressing his dissatisfaction over the performance of the ITP, said, “The ITP requires drastic transformation.” He said that the road users, regardless of their categories, have to follow the traffic rules while entering into Islamabad, otherwise, the violators would be penalised according to law.