Whoa! It’s happening folks, it’s happening in our good old Pakistan too. For the first time in the country’s history it seems that Pakistan too is going to experience an e-governance revolution. Finally!
Surprisingly it was only twenty years ago that Joel R. Goheen introduced the concept of e-ticketing for the first time in airline industry. It took twenty long years for this idea to reach our shores but now alas it’s here.
The City Traffic Police of Lahore is likely to launch an e-traffic fine system (IT-led solution to traffic violations) on an experimental basis to minimize malpractice and improve vigilance on wardens.
Currently traffic wardens in Lahore issue challans from fine books and motorists have to deposit fines later, creating a high degree of inconvenience for motorists who have to return without their documents or licenses, often not submitted in time by ticketing wardens.
Moreover many times wardens have also been caught misusing the fine books, tampering with records and accepting bribes. Therefore there is an urgent need for a new system to stop this abuse of authority.
Now this brilliant new system of e-challaning will not only stop misuse of fine books, but also help analyze traffic engineering, evaluate key performance indicators of wardens and track their locations on roads.
The motorists will get the option to pay fine to the officer on the spot who then subsequently will deposit fine tickets and amount to his respective sector the same day.
If for some reason motorists cannot afford to pay fine on the spot, he will be issued a manual fine slip.
In the first phase new android phones and printing devices are to be given to wardens by Punjab Information technology board and after a month or so of test trial, PITB will hopefully work further to remove any loopholes in the new system.
Furthermore new cameras are being installed throughout Lahore to take pictures of registration numbers of vehicles violating traffic rules.
Using this data, traffic Police will be able to retrieve details about the vehicle owners from the Excise and Taxation Department and those violating the law will be sent notices to their homes and fined.
The motorists will have the option to either pay fine online or they can also pay fines in new spots being set up by the city government.
The purpose of these technologies is to ensure that law applies equally to all citizens and credit goes to Shahbaz Sharif government for being the pioneers in introducing new technology.
Let’s just hope more of such work can be done by government to ensure that Pakistan does manage to come at par with the rest of the world in terms of E-governance.
