RAJANPUR - The Jampur Traffic Police, instead of controlling traffic, have now started playing 'cops and robbers' on the roads and they feel "obliged" to follow every van, bus, tractor, loader, truck, trailer and everything seen moving on the road and remain on the lurking to extract "illegal gratification" from dawn to dusk.
Though the Indus Highway remains jammed with traffic bumper to bumper, especially during rush hour from Traffic Chowk to THQ Hospital Chowk, one will find the traffic police officials always indulge in their professional task of 'minting money.'
The gravity of the situation could be judged from an incident occurred the other day wherein Traffic Police In-charge Nawaz Chandia chased a trailer and tried hard to stop it. However, upon sensing the police, the trailer driver sped away to avert the Traffic Police "atrocity."
In the course he hit an old wayfarer identified as Nabi Bakhsh, leaving him with critical injuries. At last the Traffic Police caught the trailer near Irrigation Rest House.
Injured Nabi Bakhsh told the mediamen that Nawaz Chandia extorted a good amount from the fleeing trailer driver and let him free instead of registering a case against him for violation.
This episode was covered by a local journalist Abbass Malik who made a footage of all that happened. When the journalist asked Nawaz Chandia about the incident, he shouted at the journalist, threatening that he would kidnap and kill them.
The Traffic In-charge told the journalist that it was their professional and routine work through which they meet the requisitions of superior officers and "everybody knows it."
Meanwhile, a meeting of the journalists was convened in Jampur Press Club under the chair of Senior Vice President Ghulam Sarwar Qureshi.
The meeting was also attended Jampur Union of Journalist President Shahid Malik, Malik Muhammad Ramzan, Malik Sajjad Hussain, Muhammad Shahid Dadda, Javaid Iqbal, Abbass Malik, Malik Bilal Babar, Ahmad Nawaz Raan, Ch Abdul Moazam Malik Abdul Majeed and others. The participants adopted a resolution, asking the police authorities to take a note of the rampant corruption and demanded transfer of the Traffic Police In-Charge.