Motorway Police: A Success Story?

Syeda Mahnoor Ali (BS 6^th- GPP)

The Pakistan motorway police was started in 1997 for working on Pakistan’s newly constructed motorway scheme. Later in 2001, it was assigned the task to also control and maintain order in Pakistan national highway which resulted in changing of its name to national highways and motorway police. Similarly, starting from 2007, the national highways and motorway police started policing the Makran coast highway. The preparation of plan was handled to an inspector general of police, Mr. Afzal Ali Shigri who was assisted by Mr. Shamim Ahmed, who was a junior officer at national transport research cell. They both with their tremendous efforts developed the most suitable highway police plan for the new motorway. The plan was postponed and cancelled after the shift and change in the government which led to many disappointments. The bench marks of this plan were carried out and implemented by an inspector general of police, Mr. Iftikhar Rashid after certain modifications in the plan.

The police culture and traffic in Pakistan was considered very vulnerable and it was not properly taken care of around two decades ago. The approximated death every year was calculated to 7000 people along with 75000 being injured in road accidents. The condition of policing department was so disappointing that in case of such incidents, the rich and affiliated were given a free card to pass away while the poor were held guilty and asked to pay fines even if they were not at fault. The main role was played by corruption as majority policemen were not interested in the benefit of the state or the general public but worked for their own personal gains. Corruption can destroy every single institution of a society along with disturbing the patriotism and mind-set of people.

1997 was the year when people were not in favor of any new reforms due to many other failures so the motorway police was criticized by many as compared to the support it received. Many professional policemen had the thinking that the police activities couldn’t be improved. However, this year was considered a shift changing year in the history of policing and traffic management in Pakistan. The traffic management on motorway was made modern, proficient and efficient as compared to the other policing departments. The new motorway police was widely appreciated and gained respect and was cherished in minimum time. Looking at the initial staging of motorway police, they did not risk any new recruitments but motivated and trained the already working police force in different areas of Pakistan to work efficiently and effectively for the maximum benefit of Pakistan. The motivation and training was solely based on molding this police service into true public servants who would value their state and general public before themselves. This change in behavior of police force astonished everyone along with the idea that the officers involved in different heinous activities in provinces were shifted into honest, noble and truthful policemen. It was later emphasize on that through proper training, motivation, patriotism and taking care of peoples’ basic needs, this dream was achievable.

After the governmental recognition of this marvelous motorway policing project, they decided to enlarge the idea into national highways which initially included the Peshawar- Karachi national highway so its original name was changed to the National Highways and Motorway Police. This change was again less supported by the masses as Pakistanis are more orthodox in nature and don’t believe in change. There were many critics who actually pointed out some of the realistic faults in the project such as the complexity of the traffic, attitude of drivers and behavior of the pedestrians on the highways of Pakistan. The work was again very difficult but with hard earned efforts and trust the National Highways and Motorway Police started patrolling on N-5 from 2001. The hard earned respect and pride was at stake but fortunately, it achieved success again and the government decided to further give control of all federal highways of Pakistan to the national highway in intervals.

The national highway and motorway police is an applauded success story of the policing system of Pakistan as it is the only policing institution whose effectiveness, efficiency, integrity, fairness, behavior, help, public service and honesty is being appreciated by the general public. In the national accountability Bureau (NAB) report of the year 2002, the national highway and motorway police was the only institution that was not corrupt in the country. The then Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr. Shaukat Aziz also declared this force as “The Island of Excellence”. Transparency International has included national highway and motorway police among the corruption-free departments of the world. It is now willingly declared that this motorway police model should be as an example for other p0olicing institutions for which Islamabad Model City Traffic Police and Punjab Traffic Wardens are being scheduled and have also received training from the national highway and motorway police.

The national highway and motorway police has its headquarters in Islamabad and is led by the inspector general of police along with seven deputy inspector generals to assist him, each one is in charge of a separate branch. The rank structure is as follows: 

·        Inspector General of Police (IGP)

·        Additional Inspector General of Police (Addl. IGP)

·        Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG)

·        Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG)

·        Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP)

·        Superintendent of Police (SP)

·        Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP)

·        Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP)

·        Inspector of Police (IP)

·        Sub Inspector of Police (SIP)

·        Assistant Sub Inspector of Police (ASIP)

·        Havaldar of Police (HP)

·        Naik of Police (NP)

·        Lance Naik of Police (LNP)

·        Constable of Police (CP)

The objectives of The national highway and motorway police are to control traffic violations on motorways and national highways, to educate road users, to launch road safety campaigns to increase awareness among the motorists, to ensure safety and provide assistance to road users and to treat road users respectfully and fairly but firmly to uphold ethical practices at all times.

 The national highway and motorway police is an applauded success story of the policing system of Pakistan as it is the only policing institution whose effectiveness, efficiency, integrity, fairness, behavior, help, public service and honesty is being appreciated by the general public. In the national accountability Bureau (NAB) report of the year 2002, the national highway and motorway police was the only institution that was not corrupt in the country. The then Prime Minister of Pakistan Mr. Shaukat Aziz also declared this force as “The Island of Excellence”. Transparency International has included national highway and motorway police among the corruption-free departments of the world. It is now willingly declared that this motorway police model should be as an example for other p0olicing institutions for which Islamabad Model City Traffic Police and Punjab Traffic Wardens are being scheduled and have also received training from the national highway and motorway police.