ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday restrained the Islamabad High Court (IHC) from pressing a contempt charge against the federal government for not allowing heavy motorbikes to run on the motorway.

A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Mushir Alam, issued the restraining order on the request of the federal government represented through Additional Attorney General Chaudhry Aamir Rehman.

The additional attorney general invited the attention of the apex court to contempt of court proceedings initiated against the government by the IHC on a contempt of court petition.

The SC is seized with an appeal against the Dec 10, 2018 direction of the IHC to the government to improve the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for allowing the heavy bikers to run their motorbikes on the motorway.

But the federal government believes that heavy motorcycles on the high-speed lanes of the motorway pose a threat to public safety.

Order issued on appeal against 2018 ruling to improve SOPs for heavy motorbikes

The controversy at hand revolves around a joint appeal by the federal government through the Ministry of Communications as well as the Inspector General National Highways and Motorway Police before the Supreme Court against the high court order.

The apex court, however, postponed further proceeding for a date to be fixed later since the counsel for Lahore Bikers Club president, Advocate Babar Sattar, was stuck in the US because of the flights suspension amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The federal government claimed that the IHC judgement had rendered the relevant road safety laws redundant with the result that even motorcycle-rickshaws could be allowed to run on the motorway. The Supreme Court was asked to overturn the IHC judgement.

After the construction of the Islamabad-Lahore Motorway (M-2), the then Motorway Police, now the National Highways and the Pakistan Motorway Police (NH&MP), was empowered under the National Highway Safety Ordinance, 2000 to regulate and control traffic on the national highways and prevent obstruction, keep order on the national highways and prevent the contravention of any rule and maintain law and order, the government argued.

Right from day one after the development of M-2 motorway, the entry of the motorcycles was expressly banned as per policy of the government reflected in the Rule 202 of the Highways and Motorway Code – a government document containing rules of the road and prepared in line with the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic 1968.

The only exception to the ban was the Motorway Police motorbikes of 500cc used for patrolling. The government said even this exception, available under Section 49 of NHSO, too, was withdrawn later due to safety reasons and motorway police motorbikes were replaced with patrolling cars.

On Dec 19, 2009, the then Prime Minister Secretariat forwarded a request of Lahore Bikers Club president Burhan M. Khan, seeking a permission to ride motorcycle on the motorway but the NH&MP denied the same on Feb 15, 2010 due to safety reasons.

But through a subsequent letter of April 6, 2010, the NH&MP took a principle decision to allow 500cc and above motorcycles to ply on the motorways for three years on the condition that NHA provides necessary road furniture (separate track for the motorcyclist with road marking and signboards) to regulate motorcyclists on the motorway only on the national days for which a limited number of biker cards with specific validity period on the strict condition of adherence to the safety measures were also issued.

However, the conditional permission granted to the bikers too was withdrawn due to safety reasons in view of the public complaints and non-adherence to the mutually agreed SOPs by the motorcyclists particularly the practice of excessive speeding even beyond 230 km/h, zigzag driving, sharp cutting, violation of lane discipline etc, the appeal argued.

On April 28, 2013, two motorcyclists were stopped and issued tickets for driving at 232-236 km per hour speed, reminded the appeal.

The withdrawal of the permission was challenged before the IHC on the grounds that no restriction could be imposed when the bikers were possessing valid driving licence and their motorbikes were registered. Moreover, the relevant rules did not contain prohibition to drive on the motorway and that they spent huge money on buying heavy motorcycles and even paid tax to the government on their import.

The appeal before the Supreme Court argued that on the request of the Lahore Bikers Club, a conditional permission was granted, initially for the trial purposes with the direction to strictly adhere to the SOPs devised by NH&MP and the laws and rules. But it was observed that not only the motorbike riders often violated the SOPs and rules but also posed serious traffic hazards for other vehicular traffic on motorways.

With the passage of time, the appeal argued, the traffic volume on the motorways increased manifold. As there were only three lanes on each carriageway of the motorway and currently no motorcycle track was available for motorcycles, mixing up motorcycles with other vehicular traffic on a high speed road like the motorway would increase the risk of fatality manifold in case of accident involving motorcycles, the petition said.

Even in case of a slight tumbling on the motorway, the chances of motorcyclist’s survival would be rare due to high speed and the fact that even standard helmets have been designed and tested for safety of motorcyclist riding at a speed of 28km/h, the appeal highlighted. In such circumstances, motorcyclists will fall straight on the road and thus would not be visible to the oncoming traffic, resultantly other vehicles will run him down and in case of a vehicle applies sudden brakes to save the fallen motorcyclists and there would be a high risk of pile-ups and chain accidents, the appeal said.

In the absence of special track for motorbikes, it is neither safe nor feasible to mix motorbikes with other traffic, especially due to the creation of air pockets by the heavy transport vehicles which may drag the motorcyclist.

Moreover, the high speed vehicular traffic requires more visibility due to availability of less time of response for a driver, the appeal argued while emphasising that motorcycles were not conspicuous particularly during the night and at the time of poor visibility due to rain and fog etc.

In the entire world, driving has never been termed a fundamental right to the freedom of movement particularly when such driving is posing danger to the lives of the drivers themselves, the appeal contended.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2020