Traffic Police in Quetta Facing Capacity Problems

Adnan Aamir

Quetta – Traffic Police in Quetta is unable to manage the traffic of Quetta city due to its low capacity.

Quetta is the only metropolitan city of Balochistan with an estimated population of 2.5 million.

In Quetta city, traffic Jams, illegal car parking and traffic violations are a common occurrence because Traffic Police does not have required manpower and resources to manage traffic in provincial capital.

There are only 309 Traffic Policemen to control the entire Traffic of Quetta. 40 of these policemen perform clerical duties in offices of Traffic and the total number of policemen in the field is just 269.

As per the government records 12,000 Auto rickshaws and almost 250,000 registered vehicles are being driven by people of Quetta. Motor Vehicles registered in other provinces and non-custom registered vehicles are in addition to that.

With a force of just 269 policemen, Quetta Traffic Police faces capacity constraints in controlling Traffic in the city.

“We had requested to hire 450 Traffic Policemen for Quetta but government has only approved recruitment of 241 new traffic Policemen,” said Hamid Shakil, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP).

He further added, “150 Policemen of Quetta District Police are also posted with Traffic Policemen to protect Traffic Policemen and also assist them in performing their duties.”

Lamenting the security threats to Traffic Policemen in outskirts of Quetta, SSP Hamid Shakil said that we can’t station our men beyond University of Balochistan on Sariab Road.

SSP Hamid Shakil also has additional charge of SSP investigation Quetta. This has put an additional burden on him and he is facing capacity problems as well in leading Traffic Police in Quetta.

Quetta Police deposits tens of millions of rupees per annum in provincial exchequer from the fines that it collects for traffic violations.

Surprisingly, 70 percent of this income is pocketed by government of Balochistan and only the remaining 30 percent is spent on Traffic Police.

Due to shortage of funds, Traffic police in Quetta also does not have a traffic engineering and planning body which is must for managing traffic in any metropolitan city.

Courtesy: Balochistan Express

Published in The Balochistan Point on December 3, 2015