The introduction of Karachi’s new faceless, traffic E-challans system has raised multiple questions and sparked curiosity among Karachi residents. This step is not only necessary for the safety of the citizens, but it may also help reduce the recent increase in accidents in Karachi caused by rash driving. These accidents involve not only heavy vehicles and motorcycles, but all types of vehicles. We have seen a rapid improvement in people’s behavior and now they are acting like mature adults, driving properly within the permitted speed limit, thus reducing the overall number of traffic accidents, where people were losing their lives due to rash driving by some individuals. In my opinion, this is a good step taken by the government, as this will not only save the lives of the people but will also lead to the punishment of wrongdoers, who neglect all the rules while driving. This will also help the government to raise funds for infrastructure development and will lead to proper governance of the funds and the system of bribery in the traffic-related matters will also be solved with the use of a digital system. We have recently witnessed how cautiously people are now driving, especially where there are multiple cameras installed to monitor the driving style of people and compliance with traffic rules, such as on Sharah-e-Faisal.
The first issue multiple people are facing is related to wrong e-challans being received by the residents, which must be solved on an immediate basis. This is due to an old system that is not properly integrated or the buyer of that vehicle has not transferred the vehicle to his/her name, which is why this is causing issues to the residents of Karachi. Due to this system, multiple people visit the traffic police office to fix the fine, which does not pertain to them or that the e-challan was wrongly issued without any violation, which is again a waste of time and resources and people see that this is again causing a long-winded process, yet another bureaucratic headache. People are also suffering due to transparency issues because they are unable to contest based on the evidence shared with them.
Secondly, another issue that got resolved through this system is related to enforcing traffic rules and creating a fair mechanism to curb bribery. However, it is still creating problems because the system to fix the issue regarding wrong e-challan is still manual and thus may have some loopholes. To fix this issue, the government should implement an efficient, user-friendly appeal process for citizens, which is transparent and solves the issue without any hassle.
Finally, there were some issues raised that is this system should work without any manual intervention in order to give fines to all without any discrimination. Moreover, the rules should be such that the fines paid should be based on the capacity of the individual so that he/she is able to pay. However, the first e-challan may be waived if requested, but serious action must be taken against violators and the system should be AI-based rather than having a manual intervention process. Another risk that is prevalent is that it has been noticed that some people have started taking those routes where cameras are not installed to violate traffic rules and thus these cameras should be placed all over Karachi and strict action should be taken against those tampering the number plate.
In my opinion, it is important that the government should have a policy that is transparent and should penalize all the violators without any discrimination; otherwise, an ordinary citizen may see this system as a cash cow for revenue rather than for the safety of local citizens and the credibility of this may be at stake. Furthermore, it is crucial to have a proper citizen awareness portal and the system for viewing e-challan should be available online rather than a long-winded process of installing the application, which is also not available on the Play Store and is completely unavailable on iOS. To ensure transparency and boost governance, the system should have no manual interventions and a complete automated system should be in place from e-challan generation to payment to fixing of issues faced by any citizen.
