TAXILA: The National Highways and Motorway Police (NHMP) sector commander suspended two Taxila circle patrolling officers on Wednesday for violating standard operating procedure for checking vehicles and issuing tickets, and ordered a departmental inquiry against them.

The two officers were found to have established ‘nakas’ or check points on the G.T. Road near Wah Garden and involved unauthorised individuals to stop vehicles, particularly trucks, dumpers and trailers, and fine them on various pretexts.

NHMP Sector Commander Senior Superintendent of Police Waheedur Rehman Khattak confirmed that the deployment of unauthorised individuals by patrolling staff to check vehicles was illegal and against SOPs.

He said there is a policy of zero tolerance for such practices, and that he has issued show-cause notices to the officers involved and ordered a departmental inquiry against them.

The NHMP officers were trying to meet ticket targets by deploying unauthorised people to check vehicles and issue tickets to them. They would park their cars in areas where traffic would slow down because of the condition of the road, particularly near the Wah Garden Bridge, and would target trucks and dumpers that were mostly carrying crushed stone and sand using the staff of a private contractor of the Fine Collection Unit (FCU).

The contractor’s staff would wear official jackets and signal and halt vehicles using an “official stop sign board” and fine them.

“We dumper and truck drivers are mostly uneducated and consider the person standing with the NHMP patrol car wearing an official jacket to be a motorway police official, as he signals with the official ‘stop’ sign,” dumper driver Umer Shah told Dawn.

Another truck driver, Kushkol Khan, said these pickets were established by NHMP officials with patrol cars who issued them tickets for various violations, including ones they had not committed, such as speeding, driving rashly and driving without a licence.

“I was issued a ticket for speeding even though my speed was not more than 60 kilometres an hour. How can a truck drive at high speeds loaded with sand,” he asked.

The police officials stayed in their cars while FCU employees stopped vehicles and issued drivers tickets, dumper driver Raja Farooq said.

“We do not know if the fine collection unit employees are empowered to stop us or not but we stop our vehicles at the naka established by them near the Wah Garden Bridge and pay them fine for different violations,” dumper driver Noor Mohammad said.

He alleged that the patrolling staff also physically attacked truck and dumper drivers and implicated them in fake cases of ‘interference in state matters’ when they questioned their power to collect fines from them.

Human rights activist Saeed Siddiqui told Dawn that these drivers were mostly illiterate and had little awareness of their rights.

He said that they did not know that the private contractor’s staff was not empowered to stop a vehicle.

When contacted NHMP Taxila circle Chief Patrolling Officer Ayub Khan confirmed that no one, including people hired by the FCU, was allowed to signal a vehicle to stop for a traffic violation.

He said people working at the FCU were hired by a contractor and had nothing to do with the NHMP’s affairs. Mr Khan added that no vehicle should be stopped or issued a ticket if it has not violated a traffic rule.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2019