Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) leadership on Wednesday filed a petition in the Sindh High Court (SHC) challenging the recently implemented e-challan system by the provincial government, alleging that the system, based on artificial intelligence (AI), imposes “exorbitant and discriminatory fines” on Karachi residents.
The Sindh government in June had decided that e-challans for traffic violations would be delivered to vehicle owners’ registered home addresses. The system, officially inaugurated last month, has drawn a mix of praise and criticism from the public.
A petition was filed in SHC today by JI’s Karachi chief, Monem Zafar Khan, Leader of the Opposition, KMC Counsel, Saifuddin, and Member Provincial Assembly Sindh Muhammad Farooq. It was filed against the Province of Sindh through its Chief Secretary, Home Department, Inspector General of Police, Deputy Inspector General of Traffic Police, and Sindh’s Excise, Taxation and Narcotics Control Department.
The petition, filed under Article 199 of the Constitution, stated that the petitioners are “law-abiding citizens, taxpayers and residents of Karachi” aggrieved by the “arbitrary notification” imposing a new AI-based e-challan system with exorbitant and discriminatory fines introduced
by the Government of Sindh and the Traffic Department.
The petition said that the said system operates through CCTV and AI-enabled cameras which automatically detect alleged traffic violations and issue electronic challans to the registered owner of the vehicle, “regardless of the fact as to was actually driving at the time of the alleged violation and who is the actual owner”.
It stated that the “impugned notification” introducing the system has been
implemented without “first ensuring the necessary road infrastructure, vehicle
ownership verification mechanisms, installation of proper speed limit signboards, zebra crossings, and other essential traffic signs”.
Furthermore, according to the petition, “coercive measures such as a
drastic increase in fines, in some cases up to 1,000 per cent, blocking of computerised national identity cards (CNIC), suspension of driving licenses, and impounding of vehicles upon non-payment amount to punishment without due process of law”.
Per the notification, in Karachi and other parts of Sindh, a large number of vehicles continue to operate without a formal transfer of ownership, as the registration records still reflect the name of the original owner.
“This situation persists due to the cumbersome and corrupt procedures in the Excise and Taxation Department, which discourage timely transfer of ownership,” stated the petition.
The respondents, particularly the excise department, “have failed to introduce a simple and corruption-free mechanism for transfer of ownership, thereby compelling many citizens to use vehicles not yet transferred in their names,” it said, adding that the respondents are duty-bound to ensure an efficient and transparent system for ownership transfer.
Even on Sharea Faisal, one of the city’s key arterial roads, there are no traffic and speed limit signs, no zebra crossings and no other marks available, the petition stated.
Moreover, the petition highlighted that the roads in Karachi are in “deplorable condition” because of which “vehicles cannot be driven smoothly, forcing commuters to take alternative or even wrong routes”.
“In several areas, the traffic police themselves direct vehicles to drive on the wrong side due to ongoing construction works, for example, Numaish as well as along University Road where the [Red Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project] is under construction and is not expected to be completed for another three to four years,” it stated.
“Consequently, traffic remains congested day and night. Streetlights have been removed, diversions are inadequate, and barriers have been placed haphazardly, causing further inconvenience and accidents,” the petition mentioned.
The petition requested SHC to “suspend the operation, implementation, and enforcement” of the “impugned notification” and the challans, penalties and proceedings initiated against the citizens of Sindh, and restrain the respondents from issuing, processing, or recovering of any penalty until the final disposal of the petition.
It also requested the court to declare the implementation of the AI-based e-challan system without adequate infrastructure and ownership
verification safeguards as “illegal, arbitrary, and unconstitutional”.
