KARACHI: Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor has said almost 80 percent of drivers in the mega city, especially bikers, don’t have valid driving licences.
Welcoming the ban on daytime entry of dumper trucks in the mega city, he said that just this one step is not enough as Karachi needs drastic reforms in its whole transport system. He alleged that the traffic police are filthy corrupt and instead of regulating traffic they are more interested in bribery.
He said heavy traffic of dumpers and trucks are operated by drivers who mostly have no driver’s licenses and training on basic traffic rules. Many of them also use drugs habitually, which causes even more traffic accidents.
He said more than 50 percent of vehicles in the mega city are motorcycles because people don’t have enough commuting facilities available. He said the government has been delaying the revival of the crucial surface rail based system, Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) for decades for the reasons best known to them. He said without revival and expansion of KCR the basic problems of the commuters could not be resolved.
He said the Lyari Expressway (LEW) was constructed so that the heavy port traffic could be bypassed without its entry in the city but sadly the heavy traffic is not allowed to ply on this expressway. He said it is necessary to use this expressway also for heavy traffic after taking the needed precautions.
Shakoor said inner city roads are almost half occupied by vendors. This could be witnessed by traffic jams at Liaquatabad market, where vendors occupy 60 percent of both sides of the road. He said on New M A Jinnah Road car showroom owners park their cars for display on footpaths and for this purpose the whole service road is converted at the government expense into a wide pavement exclusively used for parking cars, while people walk on main road.
He said there are dozens of other sites in the mega city where shopkeepers, vendors, tea stalls and other big or small businesses freely occupy roads and footpaths but the government officials do not take action against them due the factor of bribery.
He said green spaces of the Superhighway are occupied illegally by bus transporters who are constructing illegal compounds for these bus stands. He said all this is happening under the nose of the government, which has opted to remain silent instead of taking action. He said such mismanagement is never tolerated in Lahore due to the effective administration of their chief minister Maryam Nawaz.
Altaf Shakoor demanded a sweeping action against unlicensed and untrained drivers, roadside encroachments and unruly traffic. He said modern technology like surveillance cameras should be used to monitor encroachments on busy roads, especially in market areas. He said that encroachments are never possible without hidden patronage of corrupt government officials.
He asked the Sindh government to introduce drastic reforms in the transport system of Karachi to facilitate citizens and check growing fatal traffic accidents.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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