Imagine you are driving in a city at midnight. It’s absolutely dark outside and there are roads everywhere connecting to each other, traffic signals are all yellow means you are on your own. No traffic wardens to be found, no speed cameras, and no chance of getting a traffic violation ticket. What do you think you’re most likely to encounter in such a city every night, Coronavirus or a tragic traffic accident?
A strong criminal justice system is critical and crucial for the development of any country across the globe and it has 3 main and basic components, that include LAW ENFORCEMENT, COURTS, and PRISONS. The police service of Pakistan (PSP) is multiskilled and versatile in nature and different officers are assigned to different police stations across the entire country during their professional career. Law enforcement is carried out jointly in Pakistan by the police service of Pakistan and the other law enforcement agencies. Together they form a chain starting from the investigation of some criminal activity till the administration of justice. All of this seems very fascinating and mind-blowing if we just look at the system on paper that how smooth and swiftly working it seems but the reality is absolutely different and contradictive to what it actually should be in an ideal Pakistan.
Core Issues
Traffic Signals Turn Yellow After Midnight
- If we look at the developed countries, we may realize that importance of traffic signals increases in low light conditions like storms, heavy rain, and at night of course. Can you imagine a state where traffic signals turn yellow after mid-night? It is really very shocking but it is actually true. Lahore, one of the biggest cities of Pakistan has a population of around 1.2-1.5 million people but they are all on their own if they have to drive after midnight. Many, many people have died, injured, hospitalized, and permanently disabled just because they had to travel at night. The importance of traffic signals can never be denied anywhere in the world. They have saved millions of lives across the entire globe and have proven very efficient to handle high traffic volumes.
No Traffic Wardens at Night
- Imagine you are driving in a city at midnight. It is absolutely dark outside and there are roads everywhere connecting to each other, traffic signals are all yellow, which means you are on your own. No traffic wardens to be found, no speed cameras, and no chance of getting a traffic violation ticket. What do you think you’re most likely to encounter in such a city every night, CoronaVirus or a tragic traffic accident? Thousands of people have encountered deadly accidents at night, many of them have died and their families are still mourning, many of them have been disabled but law enforcement institutions prefer to sleep and let citizens handle traffic regulations on their own at night.
Underage Drivers
- I really feel bad when I am writing this but how dare someone sit in the driving seat if they don’t have a valid driving license? I have been driving in Lahore for many years and I have never been asked to represent a driving license or vehicle registration. If you live in busy cities of Pakistan like Lahore, Karachi, Islamabad, Faislabad, Multan you must have witnessed teens and sometimes even kids driving vehicles. Why is it happening under the nose of city traffic police is a matter of concern!
Negligible Amount of Fine
- The average price of vehicles is around $20,000 USD in Pakistan these days, around $10,000 for the cheapest car in the market named Suzuki Alto. But when it comes to the traffic violation tickets, you only have to pay $3 for a red signal violation and another $3 for over-speeding and not following line and lane, if you get fined, most of the time you wouldn’t get one. Mind you there are no tickets for not wearing seat belts, reckless driving, and other minor offenses because police won’t stop you.
- The list is very long actually but I am keeping it short for the reader’s sake.
How is it a Bigger Issue Than Coronavirus Pandemic?
According to DAWN, 36000 people lost their lives in 2018 due to roadside accidents whereas Coronavirus could only score 13000 deaths in a year. According to the Tribune “In 2019, 41,000, in 2018, 50,000, in 2017, 29000, in 2016, 25,000 and in 2015, 23,000 crashes involved two-wheeler motorcycles. Most of them falling between the age bracket of 11-20 and 21-30 was recorded to be the most affected.”
————-To Be Continued————-