The Sindh Police Department organised an awareness seminar titled ‘Traffic Rules and Faceless E-Ticketing Challan’.
Officials said a large number of experts from various fields, government officers, professors, lawyers, industrialists, transporters, showbiz actors, including Sindh IGP Ghulam Nabi Memon, participated. The participants welcomed the introduction of a “faceless e-ticketing challan” system by the Sindh Police.
The seminar was also attended by Additional IG Karachi Javed Alam Odho, Additional IG welfare, Sindh transport secretary, DIGs of driving licence, IT, SPCA officers, and officers from various departments of the Sindh government. Moreover, the seminar was attended by former IGs, police officers, renowned educationists, university professors, lawyers, transporters, businessmen, industrialists, IT experts, members of social organizations, showbiz actors, media and people from different walks of life.
The event began with the recitation of the Holy Quran. A promotional video regarding faceless and e-ticketing was shown at the event. The participants were informed about the details of the KRAAT digital application created for e-ticketing challans.
Famous showbiz actor Kashif Khan was also named the ambassador of Traffic Police Karachi at the event. Mir Shabar Ali, a professor at the NED University, also gave a briefing on the Intelligent Transport System in the city.
The attendees were informed that this year, 211 citizens have died in traffic accidents. The number of motorcyclists among the victims of accidents was high.
Most of the accidents are hit-and-run accidents that are not immediately detected. Under this system, it will be mandatory to install trackers in all heavy and light vehicles. The control of the trackers will be with the traffic police. The traffic police will keep an eye on accidents caused by overspeeding or other reasons. Citizens should adopt this system, and it will guarantee the safety of their lives.
Additional IG Karachi Javed Alam Odho said that last year, there was a sudden increase in traffic accidents. Keeping in mind the traffic accidents, an immediate strategy was formulated and implemented. Interaction between citizens and police in the enforcement of traffic rules has led to a negative perception against the police.
He said complaints often increase in the case of strict implementation of traffic rules. “Faceless e-challan, which was for next year, we thought why not implement it immediately. Now technology will decide who is at fault and who is against the law.”
Odho added that the staff from the monitoring room will only save evidence from the camera’s eye and forward it. A huge infrastructure is needed to improve the flow of traffic. This system will eliminate the abuse of police powers and negative behaviour towards citizens. We have been taking all stakeholders along from day one.
He said we are making the Ministry of Transport, Excise and Taxation Department, and Driving License Branch our assistants and partners. This is a teamwork, and when this system is implemented, awareness about traffic rules will increase in Karachi, he remarked.
The recommendations of the required expenditure regarding this system were approved by the chief minister and the home minister without any excuse or interaction; for which we are grateful to them. This is the reason why we are going to start this system ahead of time, he noted.
IGP Ghulam Nabi Memon said the government supported us in every way in arranging this system and the law and formally approved the law. It is our endeavour to implement this system as soon as possible. In the civilized world, he said, the traffic system is running with the help of cameras, and there are no traffic police visible on the roads.
The additional IG Karachi and their team play a central role in bringing this system. The biggest problem of our city or this city is the lack of skilled and trained drivers, he observed.
He added that traffic accidents are constantly occurring due to the absence of skilled and trained drivers on the roads. The rate of dangerous and fatal accidents has come down from 90 plus to 50. We have equipped the driving licence system with modern and advanced facilities to go on e-ticketing.
The IGP said the DIG Licensing Sindh has started issuing online driving licences from September 28, 2024; for which I personally congratulate him and his team. So far, four hundred and seventy-five thousand citizens have registered and about three hundred thousand citizens have applied for driving licences online and had received them.
In the new law, we have set the maximum fine for driving without a driving licence, the IGP said and added that the purpose of keeping the fine high is to prevent citizens from driving without a driving licence. No matter where you go in the world, no citizen can even think of driving without a driving licence due to the high fines.
Moreover, under this law, a fine of 20,000 has been imposed for driving a motorcycle without a licence, 25,000 for a car, 30,000 for an LTV, and 50,000 for a heavy vehicle. We have to improve traffic engineering and solve all the problems faced by them.
The engineers of the Traffic Engineering Bureau are talented, but they also need to be provided with resources. He said there is a dire need for awareness and education among citizens regarding the use of helmets. If there are no cameras in some areas, we still have to start from somewhere.
IGP Memon said such questions have wasted our years. The complaint mechanism will be based on evidence. If anyone has any complaint about this system, he will approach our panel which will also include representatives of the public. The complaint mechanism will be very transparent and impartial, he added.