The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday directed the Islamabad Traffic Police (ICT) to avoid registration of cases against citizens for not having driving licenses.
The court remarked that “if cases are registered against those citizens who do not have a license, there will be a stigma for them.”
Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfaraz Dogar heard a citizen’s petition against the deadline for arrest and seizure of vehicles for those driving without licenses. Chief Traffic Officer (CTO) Islamabad Captain (retd) Hamza Humayun appeared before the court.
The court disposed of the citizen’s petition with specific instructions. The Chief Justice directed that no immediate case should be registered against any citizen, and that a fine should be imposed on the citizen for not showing the license.
The petitioner citizen said that the Chief Traffic Officer had given a deadline after which the vehicle would be seized, cases would be registered and arrests would be made. The instructions to arrest those without a driving license were unconstitutional and illegal, he added.
The petitioner said that the implementation of such punishments should be abandoned, without the proper legislation.
Chief Justice Sarfaraz Dogar remarked that in the petition it had been claimed that a new law has been enacted or is being enacted. “It has been made clear that a case can be registered for driving due to negligence and carelessness, if someone drives a vehicle without a license, then in case of an accident, 302 is applied.”
The Chief Justice inquired how long has it been since Pakistan was formed? Pakistan has been formed for more than 70 years and they (Peopled) not even know that they have to have a license, if you have a license and do not have a hard copy of it, then show its copy.”
The CTO Islamabad said that “various security features have been introduced in driving license, so far we have not registered any case against any citizen who does not have a license.”
The Chief Justice remarked that “now the identity card can be verified through the NADRA app; you should also introduce such a system; online verification of all documents is also done through the NADRA app.”
The CTO Islamabad said that “we will try to make it digital by linking it with NADRA.” The court remarked that “if cases are registered against those who do not have a license, there will be a stigma for them.”
Justice Sardar Sarfraz Dogar remarked that “after the case is registered, it comes with the criminal history; Give a one-time warning and fine; when you fine someone, it will be on the record, the second time you will definitely take strict action.” “Mistakes are made by humans but there is no margin for error in the law,” he said.