Unrealistic / Impractical Laws of our Govt.

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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Our government makes the most unrealistic and impractical laws. I don’t know what our lawmakers are thinking and where they are living.

The fine currently in place for violating a traffic signal is Rs. 300.

[This amount is not commensurate with the seriousness of the offence in the first place. Secondly, there is another problem with this amount which I’ll get to later in this post.]

If in case the traffic policeman stops you for violating the traffic signal, they’ll show you the traffic rules handbook which explains the relevant law that applies to this situation. They’ll take out their challan notebook and tell you ji ab aap ki parchi kaatni ho gi, meaning, they’ll have to issue you a challan, which will basically be an official piece of paper with your details and the offence. You’ll have to go to a court or a certain traffic department office, [implying, pay for transport to the said office and take time out to go there] and then you’ll pay the fine off there. This will demand a couple hours of your time and about 350-400 rupees.

When the police official tells you ji ab aap ki parchi kaatni ho gi, you’ll ask them, kitnay ki?. Unless they’re of the rare honest breed, they’ll say ji 300 kee…“lekin waise…”…meaning…“unless you want to settle the matter here by bribing me for another amount”

Depending on your negotiation skills and bribe acceptance standards of the policeman, you could get away with paying the policeman as little as 50 or 100 rupees. There will be no challan in this case. You won’t have to pay 300 rupees and neither will you have to take the trip to the concerned office. You pay a bribe but save money and time. Maamla udhar hi muk jayay ga aur police wala bhee khush ham bhee khush. What more do you need? Traffic rules, road safety, honesty, honor…? All that be damned very conveniently.

How many people in Pakistan would actually want to go to the office and pay that 300 fine instead of paying that 50 or 100 rupee bribe to the policeman and just avoiding hassling and settling the matter right there? I don’t think many would.

Does whoever made these laws not realise that? Its like the rules have been made for a utopian population, and have been made to be broken!

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if they go and pay the 300 fine, the policeman will still get a share out of it.

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iamdead, thanks for the reply..
hmm...i c..but how will the police still get a share out of it?

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I feel the same....Sometimes one feels as if the laws in pakistan encourage corruption. Sometimes I feel, the governemnt does not want people to eat halaal. I don't know, maybe they are too busy in their lives. The top class that rules does not experiance such traffic cases, they never experiance courts and police stations. So it does not matter to them.

I myslef once ended up paying 30 rupees to a police wala in rawalpindi. It wasn't my fault , but since i had my family with me in the june 40 degree C , I killed my consciounce and earned hell fire.

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ds..oh i see…hmm..i dint know that…no wonder these policemen r so eager to challan everyone!
but this also gives them an incentive to be honest and do challans rather than let ppl go with taking bribes…hmmm…what shud the govt do then? there’s advtgs/disadvtgs in both methods…

Islamabad :confused: hmm, i totally know what u mean…actually i’ve been in a similar situation :confused: and i was feeling bad abt it too…like we r always complaining against the system but then we ourselves gave bribes? what does that make us? any better? no
do we then have a right to complain? are we not being hypocrites?
but then…what do u do? u go thru ALL that hassle when u know that there is a more easy option?
and then u think, oh everybody does it, this is the system here and so on
:frowning:
u actually feel like u r being dumb if u follow the rules and decide to pay that hefty fine and ppl laugh at u and tell u u r foolish
but its all wrong still :confused: it was more expensive but maybe we shud have payed those fines.. :bummer: what do u think? coz at the end of the day what matters is how Allah will judge us, not if we have to spend more money or time and take the trouble. and Allah swt has said that the giver and taker of bribe will both go to hell.
:frowning:

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Irem- I fully agree. At the end of the day we will face Allah. There no excuses will work. Islam is very clear about what is right and what is not. Facing the challenges , no matter how hard is what the test of life is all about. I still feel the guilt of that incident. I have however made my mind that no matter what I will do what is right.

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^

:k:

may Allah swt give us strength to do that inshallah

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Aameen

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Re: Unrealistic / Impractical Laws of our Govt.

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by irem: *
You'll have to go to a court or a certain traffic department office, [implying, pay for transport to the said office and take time out to go there] and then you'll pay the fine off there. This will demand a couple hours of your time and about 350-400 rupees.
[/quote]

Irem, isnt that how it works in other parts of the world as well? In the US, thats how it works. Yes, you can mail in your ticket with a check, but if you want to contest it, you have to go in, take time off work, and still end up paying the fine, which in many cases is not proportional to the offense. ($75 or so for overtime meter in NYC?)

As far aa corruption and bribery are concerned, even the policemen dont make a secret of it, so thats a different matter altogether. But to counter your original argument, which happens to be the topic of this thread, the law is not impractical at all. The traffic cops are the problem here, not the law.

Traffic cops do get a commission from each challan that they write, though I dont think its as high as 20%. However, the reason why they opt for a bribe instead of going for that commission is that the bribe brings them instant cash. The commission process takes 2-3 months.

I got pulled over for turning on a red light once...and he told me the fine was 200, and that if I wanted to resolve it right there, he could do it. When I told him to just cut the challan, he said, "its upto you..but just to let you know, we will get our money anyway...since we get a commission on these challans". I replied that since you are gonna get the money anyway, then Id rather you get it in the form of commission than from me. When he saw how stubborn I was, he softened up a bit, and reduced the fine to 100.

If you look at the back of the challan, it lists the amount of fines for different offenses, and all of them are (I think) proportional to the severity of the offense. Its the enforcers (the traffic cops) that are the culprits here. They dont have the right training (or any training). They dont have enough wages and benefits (for which the govt is responsible). They just follow the lot, and say, what the heck...everyone else is doing it...why not me.

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Akif bhai, I’m sharminda now. Hmmm, I’m very glad and encouraged that you did that. If I’m in this kind of situation again and want to do the right thing, I’ll remember what you did and remind myself that it won’t be foolish of me if I did the right thing or encouraged someone else to coz there are other people who actually do. Two thumbs up to you :k: :k:

Re: The system that is enforced in America. You have a point but imho we cant just apply things to our system because they are working fine in America. That’s a different society altogether and people there have a different mindset. Whatever the reasons may be, people there generally stick to traffic rules more over there than here. Our people [and shamefully I guess that includes me!] have the mindset that if you can get away with bending the rules then why not especially when everyone else is doing it too. The laws should be made keeping such realities in mind so that people don’t get too much of a chance to cheat.

They dont have enough wages and benefits (for which the govt is responsible).

Hmmm. People always give this excuse abt the police. My own brother is in Punjab Police and he doesn’t get paid a huge amount so I do know the situation. However, when you commit to a job, knowing in advance the pay scale, you should not do dishonesty at the job thinking that you don’t get paid enough. I do understand the problems but still IMHO that’s not right. Plus, we are after all a poor country, and our policemen are paid according to our standards that we can afford I think.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by irem: *
when you commit to a job, knowing in advance the pay scale, you should not do dishonesty at the job thinking that you don't get paid enough.

[/QUOTE]

Actually Irem, I think that not the case at all. For a large part, the very reason many people join the police (or many other government departments) is because of that 'uppar ki kamai'. In other words, most of the policemen join it knowing fully well that the pay scale is nominal, BUT the 'uppar ki kamai' is phe'nominal':)

Hats off to your brother, because I know that as honest officer, he is in a minority, and no doubt, must have a lot of peer pressure as well to indulge in such acts. I wasnt being apologetic for the police force when I mentioned their low wages. I just listed that as one of the several reasons as to what leads to widespread corruption in this department. I think the corruption is the result of a combination of low wages, low literacy, lack of training and corrupt higherups. If their seniors are corrupt, the juniors have no reason/incentive to be clean.

I think we can afford to pay our police better than we do.....but the reason they arent paid well is because they arent trained well, education isnt a high priority for them, and there are no skills required for it. If you compare it with the motorway police, you will see the difference education and training makes. Dealing with the motorway police, you woudl think you were in a western country. If they can be trained well enough, so can the local police. Its just that it takes a long long time to change a corrupt cycle....and more importantly, someone has to take an initiative.

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haha :smiley: but you are right about that… :confused:

:k:

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WHY SHALL YOU THINK PASSIMASTICALLY. IT MAY WORK WELL PEOPLE STOP------

Dear Readers,
I hope and you all should hope for better Pakistan; with nice laws and people following laws. HUM SUB TU criticism KEY KETTAB MA KEY PAEIT SAY LAY KAR PEIDA HO TEY HEIN. And we blame our Government for every thing.Try to mold people behaviour to follow laws. Thanks.Sokoon

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^

ahan, inshallah

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by iamdead: *
if they go and pay the 300 fine, the policeman will still get a share out of it.
[/QUOTE]

no they dont get any share of it from challan!!

the reason sometime they are eager to do challan cause they have got set targets by authorities to do such number of challans every month, in other words generate certain amount of money for the department.

even in UK speeding cameras are so hidden and placed just to generate revenue not to avoid accidents always.