Traffic police harass citizens with challans, confiscation of vehicles.

LAHORE -- The Lahore traffic police have started harassing citizens in the name of challans and confiscation of vehicles instead of taking action against the real violators, Pakistan Today observed on Wednesday.

A survey found that the traffic wardens stand in groups at different roads and instead of stopping the real violators, they start harassing the law-abiding people.

Sources in the office of traffic police informed that through verbal orders, a target of every traffic warden in the department is set to issue challans of a certain amount every month so that maximum amount could be collected.

Zubair Hassan, a resident of Cantt, informed that his office is located on Jail Road. 'I have to use Jail Road every day to reach my office. There is an army check post near Sher Pao Bridge, from where almost every vehicle, after proper checking, is allowed to enter the Cantt area. Whenever a person passes through this check post, he/she is always on alert. There are also some traffic wardens standing by the check post, who stop the vehicles for no reason. There is no signal and no issue of overspeeding, and the vehicles pass through at a very slow speed. But the wardens stop vehicles in the name of checking and harass people for not having papers, not wearing seat belts or sometimes using mobile phones before issuing challans.

Many people, who are with families, consider it safe to receive a challan but some people insist that they were not using a mobile phone or doing any violation. But the wardens first harass the people and then challan them without giving any logical reason. It is as if they were looking for their prey and not the violators. The higher authorities should take notice of this as this department is for the convenience of the people and not for harassing them.'

Aziz-ud-Din, a resident of DHA, also made a similar complaint, saying that he passes by the Fortress Stadium on the Mall Road almost daily and has to deal with a similar problem. He said, 'A traffic warden named Mohammad Idris, whose belt number is 437 TW, seems to have a personal enmity with car owners. Idris is always looking for a prey. If someone does a violation, his challan should be mandatory, but he also issues challans without any violation, which shows that the warden is suffering from some mental stress and wants to take some revenge from the citizens.

Even with regard to the challan fee, the public is not told by the wardens that which challan will have to be...