Lahore: Night shift traffic police suspended to facilitate ‘VVIP movements’

[Naveed Yaseen]

* Night shift wardens instructed to facilitate VVIP movements
* Former traffic DIG says night shift necessary to reduce accidents and discourage motorists from violating law

By Abdul Manan

LAHORE: Several traffic jams have been observed in the city since City Traffic Police (CTP) ‘suspended’ the traffic wardens’ night shift.

Sources in CTP said the third/night shift for the wardens from 11:30pm to 7am. They said CTP had ‘suspended’ the night shift for two weeks to facilitate VVIP movements, adding that the senior CTP officials had instructed the wardens on night shift to provide protocol to influential politicians. They said the second shift’s wardens switched off all traffic signals at the end of their duties (11:30 pm), adding that previously the traffic was monitored manually by the wardens on the night shift. They said the city’s busy spots - Kalma Chowk, The Mall Underpass, Ichhra Bridge, New Campus Bridge, Samanabad Chowk, Yateem Khana Chowk, Batti Chowk, Data Darbar, Civil Secretariat, Walton Chowk, Hall Road and Fowara No1 Chowk - were suffering from the most traffic jams.

Waseem Ahmed, a citizen, told Daily Times that he got stuck in a traffic jam at night for about three hours at Kalma Chowk. He said two containers had blocked the chowk. He said an ambulance was also stuck in the traffic jam.

Most traffic wardens said they had demanded their relevant inspectors to re-start the night shift, as even the traffic signals were switched off at night.

DIG: Former traffic police deputy inspector general (DIG) Ghalib Ali Bandesha, who introduced the night shift, told Daily Times about its importance. He said mostly vehicles were still on the road until about 3am, adding that he had introduced the night shift to reduce the number of accidents that occur at night. He said mostly trucks and containers caused the accidents, which sometimes even lead to the loss of lives.

Bandesha said trucks loaded with iron entered the city after 11pm, adding that most accidents were caused by them. He said there were about 15 spots across the city that were considered busy even during the night. He said the night shift wardens had controlled accidents from occurring, issued tickets to truck drivers violating the law and also registered cases against them if required. He said people usually violated traffic rules during the night, adding that if they were allowed to do so then they were encouraged to do it during the day as well. He said CTP’s main objective was to educate citizens about traffic rules. He said it was essential for the night shift to be re-initiated to monitor traffic, educate motorists and to facilitate motorists.

The Punjab government transferred Chief Traffic Officer (CTO) Habib Imtiaz as the CIA superintendent of police (SP) and appointed Cap ® Mubeen as the new CTO. However, Imtiaz has not relieved his charge yet. Imtiaz said he had terminated the night shift and added the wardens to the CTP Special Squad. He said the signals at the 15 major points were not switched off even during the night. He, however, said the signals did sometimes get switched off due to the shortage of electricity during load shedding. He said the wardens would be accommodated in the other two shifts as there was more traffic during the day. Cap ® Mubeen said he could not comment until he had taken charge as the CTO.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...009_pg13_2