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The flow of traffic on roads is very much comparable to the flow of blood in the human body on which depends the health and thereby the proper and efficient performance of all other body parts and organs. Our veins (read roads) are in danger due to the mechanical cholesterol (read motorised vehicles) being added to this already heavy and thick flow. Result? A condition of “Road Angina” is showing symptoms and giving warning signals.
This malady is in the notice and knowledge of everyone who commutes and moves around by car, donkey cart, bicycle and even on foot. Everyone is affected. Everyone is complaining. There have been innumerable articles, features, editorials, columns, TV coverage and talk shows as well as traffic campaigns but all of them point to the problem and voice the complaint.
Yes! The problem is there. The complaint is genuine and damaging to our national health, be it in terms of lost man (or woman) hours, being late at work, school and in emergencies, at hospital and also our economic health due to missed appointments, missing trains and flights and the list goes on.
About time, we at MAG thought. Let’s delve deep in the problem and join the fray. But with a different and positive slant. The elderly with incurable maladies get together and talk about them - catharsis! But the disease doesn’t go away. Younger ones with preventable and curable problems, act. Get a diagnosis and then the cure as they have a long way to go and a lot to do. What inspired us to act was the fact that there was a new doctor in town namely Wajid Ali Khan, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Traffic and whose qualifications are QPM (Quaid-e-Azam Police Medal), PPM (Pakistan Police Medal) and specialisation in the field of Dedication, Commitment and Sincerity of Purpose. We also felt that the patient (Karachi traffic) had improved visibly in the last few months. Yet, a lot has to be done still. Unfold a newspaper or turn on the television and you are confronted with horror stories of traffic accidents of an increasingly terrible nature. Letters to the Editors are clamouring about traffic violations, both by the public as well as official and government vehicles. The general feeling is that nothing is being done and the citizens of Karachi are left to their own woes in facing disablement and even death at the hands or wheels of callous and wayward drivers. The future of the growing menace being hopeless, MAG arranged a meeting with the DIG Traffic, Karachi. But before visiting him, we undertook a sample research and our observations are as follows:
General public comments are that the police as a whole and the traffic police in particular is there only to make a fast buck. The traffic police is incompetent and corrupt, thus the prevailing chaotic mess. They are rude and uncouth. They penalise the small fish and don’t dare lay a hand on the big ones, examples being only small and old cars are lifted from no parking areas and not the shiny new big ones. Similarly, the same are challaned for violations whereas the big expensive ones and sarkari vehicles go unchecked and so on. In short, the image is not very pleasant where the public is concerned.
On the other side of the picture we find other stories. DSP Traffic Jehangir Mughal, Inspector Nasir Bukhari and SI Mohammad Siddique complain of low salaries, lack of facilities and benefits like medical, schooling of children and residential problems, yet they are, one and all, working dedicatedly and willing to perform even better if only to get appreciation and a pat on the back from time to time. SI Siddique says that he and his colleagues come on duty at 7:00 in the morning and man their post till at least midnight daily. “There’s a limit to human endurance. People don’t know what we face and neither does the media show this side of our picture,” he says.
Having gleaned knowledge and information from both sides i.e., the public and the police, MAG finally landed at Police Head Quarters Garden, and taxied over to the DIG’s office. Despite his cervical problem in the neck (or should we say ‘pain in the neck’, which Karachi traffic is to one and all,) he kept his appointment.
We had a few warm up words with him and found him to be a person of pleasant countenance and disposition.
On his personal background we found that he was born in Garhi Yaseen, educated at St. Mary’s, Hyderabad, and later did his Masters in English Literature from Government College, Lahore, before joining the Police Service. He speaks Urdu, English, Punjabi and Sindhi fluently. The time for Friday prayers was approaching so we fired the first question to DIG Wajid Ali Khan.

What would you say about the present traffic scenario of Karachi as compared to other mega cites of the world?
Definitely better, even today despite our people breaking traffic laws and rules all the time, we do have chaos resulting in congestion but not jams. Congestion is due to the chaotic conditions because of neglecting traffic rules or carelessness but even in the congested state though creeping, the traffic does move giving one the feeling of not being stuck whereas in a traffic jam one is rooted to a spot not knowing what is ahead and when one will get out of it. This gives rise to frustration and frayed nerves.

Safe driving depends on good drivers. How would you define our drivers?
Not satisfactory.

Then how and why are bad drivers issued driving licenses?
Karachi being mini Pakistan, there are people with licenses from all over Pakistan. Towards curbing malpractices, we are trying to bring a change through proper testing. Stage 1- written or oral test. Stage 2 - sign comprehension test and stage 3 - driving test. Please note that all the three tests will be conducted by three different officers. It’s easy to deal with one person but rather difficult with three at a time so we expect better results. Secondly, we are introducing computerised driving licenses with security features to curb the menace of counterfeit ones. Also, previous violations will be recorded in these licenses enabling the force to cancel those of habitual violators.

Your staff at PIDC, Teen Talwar, Do Talwar and such other spots seem to be doing a reasonably good job. Why not all over Karachi?
Due to a lack of resources, we are inhibited. But we have worked up a solution - we have selected one hundred points which are focal like the ones you mentioned and also Numaish, Regent Plaza, and similarly others face the heaviest flow, the idea being that if we control the flow at these main points it will ease the remaining and there will be less pressure at those places and I may add it has produced good results since the last few months.

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