A Smarter E-Challan System: But is Karachi Ready?
By Abdul Ahad – On November 27, 2025
Karachi's relationship with traffic laws has always been to put it mildly "complicated." The city's
roads have been a mess of a survival scenario for decades. The rulings have never been according
to the traffic laws but by “Might is Right.
” The latest protagonist comes into this fray; the E-Challan
system, which is an AI-powered system by the Sindh government. On paper, it is a utopian fantasy,
a dream of a faceless enforcement mechanism that is going to eradicate bribery, clean up the
management, and save lives. However, to the common Karachiite, who has to fight the inflation
and has to navigate through wrecked infrastructure, this dream is fast turning into a nightmare.
Let us be clear: No one opposes road safety. There is no advocacy for the anarchy that currently
defines driving in this city. Nonetheless, a First World sanctioning of Third World infrastructure
will not be modernizing, it will be a kind of state endorsed entrapment. The existing
implementation process of e-traffic challans in Karachi though good in theory is proving to be far-
flung, predatory and economically deaf to the realities of the citizenry.
The Infrastructure Gap
The e-challan system in Karachi requires accuracy in a road system that is not that precise. On
roads without visible lanes, drivers are fined for violating the lanes, and in cases at crossing points
where the traffic lights hardly operate, they are fined on violating the signal. What can the
government enforce the rules, which it has not managed to present the conditions to follow?
Driving in this city is like avoiding potholes, overflowing sewage, and a game of chance. An AI
camera punishing a swerve to avoid a pothole on University Road or Shahra-e-Faisal is not
instilling discipline but is punishing survival. Unless lanes are painted, signals fixed, roads mended
and necessary repair works done, enforcing a hefty system will only look like a revenue generation
scheme.
The Traffic Police Problems
The subplot of the traffic police themselves is fascinating, yet cynical. After implementing the e-
challan system, Deputy Inspector General Ghulam Nabi was forced to prohibit transfer of traffic
officials. Why? Due to the reports that officers were desperate of leaving the traffic department.
Traffic duty in Karachi was reputed to have been a lucrative posting in the past decades because
of the use of on-the-spot bribery. This revenue source is under the threat of being dried out by
the e-challan system. Although this is a laudable and desirable objective of eradicating bribery,
the side effects of internal tension reveal the rot in the institution. When the officers are escaping
as they are no longer able to gouge citizens, it is an indication that the rot was ingrained.
Nevertheless, to substitute the notion of bribes with that of unreasonable fines is no feat to the
ordinary man. The citizen is the loser in both cases; previously to the corrupt officers and now to
the unforgiving camera.
Inequality Across Two Major Cities
The economic case against the existing system of fines is crippling. The minimum wage in Karachi
is between 37,000 and 40,000 per month. Nonetheless, it has been reported that fines imposed
on some violations by e-challan in Karachi may reach up to Rs 5,000.
Do the sums: one fine can take away almost 13% of the monthly income of a low-wage worker.
That is no pat on the back that is a weeks’ worth of food stolen off the table of a family.
The unfairness is even more evident to the north. Under the Punjab Safe Cities Authority, in
Lahore, the fines are normally low and penalty ranging between Rs 200 to 500 on similar cases.
Why is a violating traffic in Karachi considered 25 times worse than a violating traffic in Lahore?
Are the Sindh people more prosperous? Certainly not. This gap gives the impression that Karachi
is not a city that should be managed, but a cash cow to be milked. When the penalty for a mistake
is financial ruin for a motorbike rider, the law loses its moral authority and becomes an instrument
of class warfare.
Conclusion: The Way Forward
The Sindh government, particularly Senior Minister Sharjeel Memon, has called this a "bitter pill"
necessary for safety. But medicine is supposed to heal, not kill the patient. The current aggressive
fines should be suspended immediately and replaced with a warning period until the
infrastructure catches up. Fines must be rationalized to align with the economic reality of the city.
Furthermore, the threat of blocking CNICs for unpaid fines must be reconsidered.
Modernization is inevitable and necessary, but it cannot be a hammer used to crush the poor. If
the government wants us to drive like we are in Dubai, they must first build roads that look like
Dubai, not ruins that look like Mohenjo-daro. Until then, this e-challan system remains a digital
tax on our collective misery. |