90pc Of Drivers In Karachi Don’t Have A Valid Driving License

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It’s no secret that a lot of people driving around on the roads of Pakistan these days do not have a valid drivers license, most of us may know a person or two who drives his or her car everyday with either a fake license or without a license at all. Recent statistics from studies conducted revealed that in the city of Karachi, an alarming 90 percent of drivers are currently driving without having a valid license or may possess a fake license. DIG Traffic Karachi, Dr Amir Ahmed Shaikh said that approximately 3.642 million vehicles are registered in Karachi and the statistics show that only 250,000 people have a valid driving license.

Majority of the commercial vehicle like dumpers, trucks, water tankers and minibus drivers have fake licenses that were issued to them from places such as Fata, Gilgit-Baltistan and Waziristan. Dr Amir said that these untrained drivers are the reasons behind traffic jams taking place all over the city and that a massive 75% of the accidents that occur in Karachi are caused by those commercial vehicle drivers.

Dr Amir has stated that he has already started taking initiatives in order to make sure that these “killing machines” will be made to get the training that they desperately need. He has issued a letter to the Secretary of Transport, Sindh, that informs them to take the necessary steps in order to ensure all drivers of commercial vehicles get fully valid license from Karachi License Department. Action will also be taken against many driving schools that reside in the city where untrained instructors do not posses the skills to give the required amount of training to learners.

Story: Daily Times

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7 Comments
  1. Guest says

    There are many fallacies in this logic:

    1. Worse driving behaviour viz. racing, lane breaking, wrong direction, absence of brake light (and all lights), overloading, no indicator is practiced by motorcycle drivers, not drivers of commercial vehicles.

    2. The biggest single cause of traffic accidents is not drivers but the vehicles. Brake is usually double pump, indicators are not present, steering mechanism has play and driver is not responsible for all this mess. Fitness department is. The number of broken down vehicles is astounding compared to other countries, these broken down vehicles cause traffic jams. Drivers are not responsible for this, aging national fleet and government policies are.

    3. In fact drivers from FATA, GB, and Waziristan have remarkable vehicle control compared to the locals because they have been driving on narrow mountain roads.

    3. All Karachi registered vehicles are not only in Karachi, rather they are all over the country. Recently Lahore and Islamabad have adopted computerized registration and issued number plate in the past 10 years or so, otherwise the province with largest population also used to use vehicles with Karachi registration when ISB, IDB, LXV, LHV numbers used to be on plastic plates made by the people themselves.

    4. The number of vehicles removed from the roads because the vehicles were stolen or snatched and then cut up for spare parts is insane (the numbers are specially very high for motorcycles). In addition, many vehicles retire due to age. Consider all the old Mazda 808, Mazda 323 which are not seen anymore. But there is no method of registration plate cancellation, which is why the real number of vehicles on the roads is much less.

    5. ALL the commercial vehicles get registered in Balochistan. NONE of them has Karachi number. Readers could themselves verify all the لسبیلہ اے and لسبیلہ بی out there.

    6. A reason behind traffic jams is that road geometry is not proper. Bus stops are not flared, so buses stop in the middle of the road. Bus stops are not safe/comfortable for women so they stand out farther in the middle of the road, blocking one or two lanes. In addition, what about the encroachments? There are no lane markings, traffic lights do not work properly half the time because of load shedding.

    7. Water tanker drivers are usually of Balochi origin, how can they have license from FATA, GB or Waziristan?

    8. Last time we knew, you can only get license from your place of permanent address. Then how will Karachi traffic police give license to those whose permanent address does not belong here?

    9. What about the traffic slowdowns caused by animal carts, hand carts, bicyclists?

    Would really like to know the statistics behind “75% of the accidents that occur in Karachi are caused by those commercial vehicle drivers”, because most accidents occur because motorcycles themselves go and hit the big vehicle or do not give them enough space. As a result motorcyclist dies and bus or truck driver gets beat up. Because street violence is our national culture, we cannot live without it.
    It is unfair to blame the commercial vehicle drivers because they are an easy target while most of the causes leading to accidents are not under their control viz. overloading, unfit vehicle, long duty hours, behavior of motorcycles, poor road condition, absence of street lights, fear of street violence, becoming target of mobile snatching as they are on the road most of the time, fear of burning up of the vehicle by politically motivated people or by street mobs and other types of stress such as unavailability of safe drinking water or toilet at all throughout the route.

  2. usman niazi says

    motorcycles and the rickshaws types are the menace on the road… no other vehicle is… there should be driving tests for everyone, even the legit ones get them without any tests… it is so bad out there that i suggest that they should make a separate lane(with walls on both sides) for motorcycles and if anyone tries to get onto the main road should be “SHOT”… almost every week i helplessly observe, stuck in trafic, when some motorcycle gets out of control and bangs into me and then “sorry yaar”… i am so fed up of motorcycles that i wish there are big boxing gloves attached to springs on each side of the car, and when any motorcycle comes close, you press a button and “bang” them away…

  3. Salman Hasan says

    Thats a lovely idea. Im sick of motorcycles too and old dump aka rickshaws, would love to box battle and kick in their *****! jeez why cant we make these kinda kickboxing cars. why O WHY!

  4. Khurram says

    Couldn’t agree more with you. Motorcyclists are really a pain in the head, their stupid bike is cheap and scratch on the car costing around millions is nothing to them.

  5. Usman says

    Karachi mein aik Sadi se yehi tasweer wali buses chal rahi hain!

  6. Sulman Ali says

    that’s scary but what do you think about Lahore?

  7. ZQ says

    From lahore : We dont have a license becoz they bribe us and make it difficult for us to get a license. I would rather not go get it then. Its not like i ll drive wrecklessly without a license anyway. I know its a wrong way of thinking though

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