Lahore High Court Challenges Traffic Police’s E-Challan System

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City Traffic Police (CTP) in collaboration with Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA) launched the E-Challan system in Lahore in September 2018. The new system identifies traffic rules violations with the help of cameras and sends the challan to the violators’ homes. The Lahore High Court is not happy with this e-challan system and has called the City Traffic Police into question.

The public has been complaining about electronic challans since their launch. Petitions have been signed to raise voices against this flawed e-challan system. Such a petition caught the attention of Justice Shams Mahmood Mirza, who decided to get to the root of the problem. So, the Lahore High Court judge asked the state counsel about the validity of the e-challan system. 

In a disappointing response, the state counsel failed to present any proof of the law that justifies this new traffic ticketing system. The counsel informed the judge that PSCA put the e-challan system into action under the directives of the Lahore High Court (LHC). Justice Mirza ordered the counsel to present the statement, where LHC allowed the use of e-challans, on record. 

The E-Challan System in Lahore

E-Challan is an Electronic Traffic Violation Ticket system that uses modern Automatic Vehicle Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras to identify traffic violations. Over-speeding, breaking the one-way traffic rule, trespassing the lane changing rules, etc.

The ANPR cameras, installed across different roads of Lahore, capture the license plate of the traffic violator’s car. The system then pasted the picture on a challan paper with other details of the violation and sends it to the car owner’s home.

During the last two years, the Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA) has issued over 4.4 million e-challans in Lahore and collected 339 million rupees worth of payments. Out of these 4.4 million traffic rules violators, around 2 million and 75 thousand were vehicle owners, 2.2 million and 90 thousand were motorcyclists, and over 85 thousand were commercial vehicles.

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