Effective March the Punjab government has strictly enforced helmet law that makes it mandatory on a motorcyclist or scooter-rider to invariably wear a helmet while on road. Every day hundreds of motorbike users are currently being challenged in the province for not wearing helmet and thus violating traffic laws. Besides, multiplier financial penalties, they are being humiliated and harassed at the hands of the police that obviously not treat them with respect. To rub salt on the wounds, SP Traffic Police Lahore has warned them of 3 years' imprisonment if not wearing helmet even after repeated challans on this account.
The motorbike users are being treated like they all were terrorists and criminals. Why can't good sense prevail at the level of policy-makers, and public-friendly laws are formulated and implemented?
The present campaign reflects that the issue of wearing a helmet has now assumed top priority of the provincial government, as if all other issues of providing education, healthcare, other basic amenities, justice and jobs to the masses have been resolved already.