The traffic chaos being witnessed on the streets of Karachi is mainly due to sheer violation of traffic rules by the citizens themselves who recklessly drive on the streets of Karachi without a valid driving license. As a matter of fact citizens alone cannot be blamed for this because traffic police officers are also responsible because they spare violators of traffic rules.
Then, the blame also goes to the government for its failure to ensure smooth flow of traffic by disallowing anyone who brings car, motorcycle, rickshaw or any other vehicle on the streets without a valid driving license.
According to latest report of Karachi Chamber's Research & Development Department titled "Karachi Traffic Chaos - Jamming the Wheels of Economy," as compared to total number of registered vehicles, only 2 percent licenses have been issued to rickshaw drivers, 19 percent to bikers and 35 percent to car drivers, which clearly indicate that majority of the vehicles plying on the streets of Karachi are being driven without a valid driving license.
Former president KCCI Siraj Kassam Teli has been urging the authorities on various occasions to take strict action against those violators who are moving on the streets of Karachi without a valid driving licenses but unfortunately, no action has yet been taken, resulting in creating a traffic mess at almost all the thoroughfares of Karachi where anyone can fearlessly drive without a valid driving license and in many cases, even the license holders are not well-aware of traffic signs and rules.
"We have been demanding from time to time that no one should be allowed to drive on the roads at any cost without a valid driving license which should only be issued after proper training only to those individuals who qualify the relevant theoretical and practical tests," chairmen BMG Siraj Kassam Teli was quoted as saying.
He further said that unfortunately, the concerned authorities had paid zero attention to this demand and the consequences are visible on the streets of Karachi where traffic flow situation continues to worsen day by day.
At numerous platforms, Teli has also been stressing the need to substantially raise the existing penalties for traffic rules' violators which, if done, would trigger some kind of fear amongst the violators. He expressed hope that the decision-makers at the provincial and local governments would pay attention to this serious issue and devise effective course of action to control traffic.
He said the rulers also need to improve the dilapidated infrastructure of Karachi in order to provide some relief to the perturbed citizens who continue to suffer for hours and even get looted on the streets during traffic jams. KCCI R&D report, while comparing the number of the driving licenses issued or renewed during the last almost five years with number of vehicles registered reveals that there are just 19 percent motorcycle driving licenses.
It is more surprising that the total active driving license holders of motorcycles are mere 43 percent of even the new motorcycles registered in the last five years. Based on this data, it can be safely asserted that quite a significant number of motorcyclists are driving their bikes on the road without a driving license.
The report further pointed out that the situation is the worst in case of rickshaw category which is experiencing the highest growth in number of vehicles but the number of license holders are just 2 percent and 3% of the total registered and new registered rickshaws, respectively. This depicts that the enforcement of traffic laws in this category is almost non-existent.
KCCI's R&D report further identified that the situation of private car and LTV (Light Transport Vehicle) categories is relatively better than motorcycle and rickshaw categories, with total 770,601 driving licenses against 1.5 million total registered cars and LTVs translating in 51 percent licenses as compared to said vehicles. There may still be many who drive their four wheelers without a license.
In contrast, the total number of HTV (Heavy Transport Vehicle) driving license holders corresponds to 69 percent of the total registered HTVs depicting that most of the HTVs drivers bear valid driving licenses as not all of the registered vehicles would actually be running on the roads.
KCCI's R&D report suggested that the scenario is urgently calling for a strict crackdown on the persons driving vehicles without a valid driving license particularly the rickshaw and motorcycle drivers as amateur drivers are more prone to accidents and are a threat to the safety of life of other as well.
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