By Ahsan Mughal
KARACHI: The vice-chairman of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement- Haqiqi (MQM-H), Shaukatullah Farooqi, has accused the Sindh government of using the newly expanded e-challan system as a “tool for revenue collection” rather than a measure to improve public safety.
Speaking during a meeting with a delegation of traders at the residence of party chief Afaq Ahmed, Farooqi said Karachi was facing a deepening administrative crisis, with the burden repeatedly shifted onto ordinary residents. The e-challan system, he argued, had been enforced “blindly” across the city without any improvement in infrastructure or a functional traffic management plan.
According to Farooqi, hundreds of thousands of traffic tickets have already been issued, adding new financial pressure on citizens while the government has failed to fix basic road conditions. “The government seems more interested in filling its coffers through cameras than repairing roads or curbing street crime and accidents,” he said.
Karachi’s major roads remain battered, he added, with open manholes, broken covers, dilapidated streets and abandoned development schemes turning daily travel into a life-threatening ordeal. “Every year, thousands are injured or killed because of the city’s collapsing road system,” he said.
Farooqi criticized what he described as misplaced priorities: “The roads were never repaired, but cameras were installed. Accidents haven’t reduced, but fines have increased. Where did the maintenance budget go? E-challan is daylight robbery from citizens’ pockets. Unless the roads are safe, the rules are clear, and signals and lane markings are functional, e-challan will remain nothing more than a tool for revenue, not public safety.”
He also took aim at the political understanding between the Pakistan Peoples Party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan and Jamaat-e-Islami, claiming Karachi’s residents had “fully understood” the nature of their alliance. “Their real partnership is about extracting revenue from the city while denying it authority,” he said.
