ISLAMABAD: Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb of Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday sought a report from Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) on its strength to cope with violations on roads as the federal capital has become one of the most dangerous cities of the country in terms of accidents ever since its population and traffic volume increased manifold.

Hearing a petition filed by M/s Lakki Foundation, Justice Aurangzeb directed the police authorities to `submit a report on the mechanism/SOPs that are adopted for determining as to whether a transport vehicle is worthy of beingissued a fitness certificate.

The report shall also indicate steps being taken to penalise those who violate traffic rules.

Justice Aurangzeb also directed the police to submit a report about the sanctioned strength of its staff and officers, and the number of officers assigned duty in night hours.

Counsel for the petitioner Kashif Ali Malik informed the court that the population of Islamabad was 800,000 in 1998 which increased to over 1.1 million while the traffic volume went up by almost seven times in the last 13 years.

However, the strength of ITP has gradually decreased from 684 to 628 personnel, he said.

There are around 31 entry points to the federal capital which are not properly manned by traffic police.

Furthermore, there is no segregation of entities such as motorcycles, motorcars, heavy traffic etc., on the roads which is a major cause of accidents, said the petition.

It said the ITP was established on Jan 28, 2006, to make the traffic system in the capital a model of excellence forother cities.

Citing a report of the World Health Organisation (WHO), the petition said Pakistan was ranked first in Asia and 48th in the world for deaths caused by traffic accidents.

The report said there were no national vehicle standards, no formal certification for pre-hospital providers, no testing carried out in case of a fatal crash.

The design standards for the safety of pedestrians exist partially; seatbelt law is not applicable to the front, rear seat and child occupants. There are also no restraints on children sitting in the front seat.

According to police records, more than 60,000 people died in road accidents over the last 11 years in the federal capital. Some of the reasons for the accidents included failure of the traffic police in enforcing traffic laws, poor vehicle condition, lack of road marking, no traffic segregation, use of mobile phones, influence of drugs, speeding, wrong overtaking and bad road condition.

Advocate Malik argued before the court that as per data maintained by theFederal Bureau of Statistics (FBR), the total number of accidents in the capital territory in 2016-17 was 226. Reportedly, the fatality rate per 100,000 population was 6.1more than any other city in the country. This rate for Punjab was 3.3 and for Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Azad Jammu Kashmir it was 2.1, 4.5, 3.2 and 4.3, respectively.

He said except for high-profile movements, the traffic police were not deployed on major roads such as the Islamabad Expressway and Srinagar Highway to control traffic resulting in severe jams during peak hours and major accidents.

The Islamabad Expressway and Srinagar Highway are considered to be most vulnerable to accidents.

The so-called signal-free corridor is not fenced from either side and has several unplanned accesses for commercial projects such as wedding halls, marquees,plazas andfuelstations.

These unplanned accesses defeat the purpose of making the corridor as signal free, he added.

The court would take up the matter on July 8.