ISLAMABAD: The capital police have introduced a new and unique service called `extra protocol` for driving licence seekers against a fee of Rs2,000.

Sources in the police told Dawn that under the recentlyintroduced service, the applicants of driving licence were given special protocol right from the entrance to the Islamabad Traffic Office till getting the licence within an hour after paying the amount.

Some of the police officers as well as the visitors believe that by introducing the new service, the police are promoting and encouraging a VIP culture and the mindset that `you can buy anything if you can afford.

In May 2024, the fee for driving licence was Rs2,400; however, it was increased as some new charges were introduced, including the road test fee. The decision had led to up toa33percentincreaseinthe fee. Out of the total fee, Rs2,400 are submitted to the national exchequer while the service charges go to the police.

At that time, Rs200 fee was introduced as a medical fee, Rs200 as the fast-track driving licence processing fee, Rs200 for car, Rs300 for lighttransport vehicle (LTV), and Rs500 for heavy transport vehicle as road test fee and Rs200 for the road safety education session.Similarly, a no-objection certificate fee of Rs1,000 was introduced in case the holder of a driving licence issued from outside Islamabad wanted to get a licence from the capital.

Besides this, the capital police are already charging fordifferentservicesprovided to people including a Rs1,000 each asfee forissuing character certificates, general verification, foreigners` registration, motorcycle verification, Rs1,500 for vehicle verification, and Rs3,500 for vehicle forensic verification Meanwhile, in another development, the office of the inspector general of police Islamabad has taken over all additional financial transactions following complaints of irregularities in funds collected from citizens for services offered by different divisions of the force.

Earlier, all the concerned in-charges/operations posted in different facilitation centres were asked to ensure collection of the fees for the services and deposit the same along with the statements generated from different IDs of the police`s accounts operating with the names of offices/posts, the officers said.

However, delay in submission and frequent errors in statements were observed for the last couple of months.

Besides, differences in the two top offices of the divisions collecting the amount also came in the notice of the IGP office which asked the divisions to deposit the amount to the office of the police chief.

Inspector General of Police Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi was approached for comments by Dawn, but he did not reply.