E-challan fines stir backlash as people demand road repairs | The Express Tribune

KARACHI:

As Karachi’s new AI-based e-challan system sparks public outrage over steep penalties, city traffic authorities are defending the move as a necessary deterrent to restore order on chaotic roads while citizens say authorities should fix the city’s crumbling infrastructure before penalising drivers.

Heavy traffic fines in Karachi are designed to deter violations, not match people’s affordability, said DIG Traffic Peer Muhammad Shah on Monday, emphasising that breaking traffic rules “is not a basic necessity that one must repeat again and again.”

Speaking at the Karachi Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI), the DIG said Karachi’s traffic crisis stems from collective behavioural failure. “As a society, we no longer consider wrong as wrong. People break signals or ride without helmets without even feeling guilty,” he remarked. He noted that since the rollout of the e-challan system and neighbourhood WhatsApp groups of Chhipa and Edhi in camera-monitored zones, “have gone silent” as accidents in those localities have dropped sharply.

Citing data, Shah said Karachi previously recorded three traffic-related deaths daily, but after digital enforcement, the average has declined to two. “That means we are saving around 30 lives a month. Our target is to bring fatalities down to one death per day – saving 60 lives each month,” he added.

He argued that low fines only encourage disregard for the law, recalling an anecdote about a lawyer who paid a judge Rs500 in advance for a Rs100 misconduct fine because he expected to use abusive language again. “This is what happens when penalties are too low – they lose their purpose,” he said.

The DIG added that 11 Sahulat Centres across Karachi now allow first-time offenders a one-time waiver, making the system firm yet fair. Only a fraction of the city is currently covered by smart cameras, yet early results indicate safer driving habits. “If someone wears a helmet on Shahrah-e-Faisal due to cameras, gradually he will stop removing it even in non-camera zones,” he said, adding that Karachi once had some of the best road sense in the region, a reputation he aims to restore.

He warned that tampering with or scratching number plates is a criminal offence and will lead to arrest. Vehicles with fake or untransferred number plates will be blacklisted and flagged across police and excise databases, with cases referred to relevant departments.

Shah said Karachi needs at least 400 smart, adaptive traffic signals to manage congestion effectively. The city’s “stop-and-go” traffic pattern, he explained, cannot rely on long free corridors, which merely shift congestion elsewhere. “We need intelligent signals that respond to real-time traffic—not fixed timers,” he stressed. One signal would cost around Rs9 million, he added, calling for the activation of a fully functional Traffic Engineering Bureau, though the department currently lacks engineers and sufficient funding.

The DIG also announced strict monitoring of dumpers, which are now required by law to have trackers. Any dumper without an approved tracker will face a Rs100,000 fine and an FIR. “Without tracking, we would basically be giving them a licence to kill,” he warned.

Shah reiterated that lasting reform requires deterrence. “Without fear of consequences, no system can succeed,” he concluded.

While officials credit the digital crackdown with saving lives and curbing accidents, many residents say the system unfairly targets citizens already burdened by deteriorating infrastructure and economic hardship, highlighting the widening divide between policy intent and public frustration in Pakistan’s largest metropolis.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, a resident, Ehtesham Khan, who was recently issued a Rs5,000 e-challan, said the authorities are making the city “unbearable” for ordinary citizens while the privileged continue to enjoy unchecked advantages. He said inequality in Karachi has reached its peak, with the elite “getting every piece of the cake” while the rest of the population remains trapped in constant struggle.

“This challan will eat a big chunk of my salary,” he said, expressing frustration over what he described as misplaced priorities.

Khan urged the authorities to first focus on repairing the city’s crumbling roads and improving economic opportunities before imposing heavy penalties through the newly introduced AI-based e-challan system.

“My simple wish is this: give us roads first and then fine me if I break any traffic rule,” he added.

His statement has struck a chord with thousands of Karachiites who not only face similar fines amid pothole-ridden streets, broken traffic signals, and incomplete underpasses, but are also burdened with heavy taxes that are used seemingly for everything but improving Karachi’s dismal infrastructure.