Pindi traffic police least interested in enforcing rules.

RAWALPINDI -- It seems Rawalpindi is functioning without the traffic police, as one would hardly see any traffic wardens enforcing traffic laws on major arteries of the garrison city. The traffic police have only shown their performances by issuing press releases - claiming crackdowns against juvenile drivers, one-wheelers, vehicles using unspecified registration plates, and the ones plying on roads with tinted windows.

These statements also speak of crackdowns against encroachment with the help of the anti-encroachment squads of the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA).

But on the ground, the situation is totally different. Traffic is moving haphazardly, especially at the busiest intersections like Kutchery Chowk, Marrir Chowk, Fawara Chowk, Raja Bazaar, Saddar, Murree Road, and other parts of the downtown. And public transporters are violating traffic rules, especially parking and picking and dropping passengers at un-designated places.

The traffic wardens are there, one could see them standing in groups along roadsides - some engaged with public service vehicles' drivers or private vans transporting goods - negotiating with drivers and dishing out challans while ignoring traffic congestion on the other side of the road.

Since the newly posted Chief Traffic Officer Taimoor Khan has assumed the charge of his office, he has not given any future plan for improving traffic and motivating traffic staff to improve traffic in the city and cantonment areas.

A former senior police officer who worked in the traffic department attributed the city's deteriorating traffic issue to the 'weak command' or supervision.

He claimed that in addition to the poor leadership, there are some additional factors for the worsening traffic situation in the city, including an increase in the number of vehicles, encroachments, and the inefficiency of government agencies.

On the other hand, the public also complained...