Dear PakWheelers,
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Dawn - Saturday Aug 23, 2003 - </B>Police and highway robberies
THE governor of Sindh, the chief minister, the police IG and other higher authorities should take notice of the day-light ârobberiesâ committed by policemen on the National Highway. I am a frequent highway traveller and go upcountry four-five times a year. I travel on both national and Indus highways, and cross Sindh via Obaro or Kashmore to Punjab and onward. Mostly the victims are cars bearing Karachi registration number plates.
I will illustrate how these robberies are being committed these days. While travelling on the National Highway to or from Punjab, particularly near Sukkur bypass, your car will be chased by a private car in which three-four men, waving their hands in frantic way and wearing traffic police uniform, will chase you and stop you by pulling over ahead of you in a thrilling police movie style as if you had committed a big crime. You will naturally be nervous, and stop your car.
One constable will approach you and, in a threatening tone, will inform you that you didnât stop when they (the police) tried to stop you some 20-30km back. You will naturally say that you did not notice any such instruction by the police. On which he will be very angry with you and ask you to come out of the car with documents. If you are with your family, they will become more hostile. Then they would examine your vehicle documents. Whether or not you have complete documents, or you have some minor or major deficiency in your documents in terms of vehicle tax, validity of driving license, insurance etc., they will find out some âseriousâ missing in your documents. They will tell you how many serious crimes you have committed, for example by not having a highway code book duly issued by the authorities.
You would reply that these are minor missings and you are willing to get a legal challan. But at this juncture they will threaten you that they are going to seize your car till the next one or more days, when you will have to appear before a magistrate in Sukkur or Nawabshah. Just imagine, you are on the highway, tired and wearied, with your family going to your destination for some very important commitment. What you will do? They wonât listen to any argument of yours.
Then another policeman will jump out of the car and will approach to the scene, and these policemen will stage a play. The first policeman will assure you that if you are willing to negotiate for a handsome money for âmithaiâ, he will convince âsahebâ (the police officer sitting in the car) to let you go. The other policeman will shout at the first policeman for why he is trying to help you by accepting such a meager sum.
You are confused, stunned and upset by the situation. You will realize that by going legal you will lose a lot of your time and face unimaginable difficulties. Then you will calculate the cost of your time, and inconvenience caused if you agreed to the legal challan process, which they will hold till the next day or so. You will then think about your family and children, where they will go and will silently agree on âmithaiâ terms.
Then there will be a tough and intensive negotiation process. You will be terrified by listening to their demand which would be something like seven-ten thousand rupees, and they will extract as much money as they can. Itâs up to your mental stamina. And you, miserably helpless, will be forced to pay the bribe.
Similarly, while travelling from Karachi to upcountry, there is another âfamousâ police post at âNaseerabadâ on the Indus Highway, some 60km from Larkana, where motorists are harassed by the district police. They are relatively polite and soft, but still insist on âmithaiâ. The higher authorities are requested to look into this matter. TANVEER ARIF, Karachi.
