DIG Traffic Syed Muhammad Shah has revealed that 60 percent of motorcycles in Karachi are fitted with fake number plates, as the city currently has 4.6 million motorcycles on its roads. Speaking at an event in Karachi, the DIG Traffic acknowledged that the city’s e-challan system is facing certain issues, stating plainly that not everything is functioning perfectly.
He described the underlying problem as a decades old issue that would take time to resolve, rather than something the digital enforcement system alone could fix immediately. The comments come months after Karachi launched its Traffic Regulation and Citation System, an AI integrated, camera based enforcement network that replaced the city’s earlier manual ticketing process and was hailed at its launch as a milestone in digital governance and road transparency.
The DIG Traffic emphasized the need for greater public awareness, particularly around helmet use for motorcyclists, which he described as extremely important given the scale of two wheeler traffic in the city. He added that lane discipline is being strictly enforced across Karachi as part of ongoing efforts to improve road safety alongside the digital enforcement system.
According to the DIG Traffic, the number of motorcycles in Karachi has more than doubled in recent years, rising from 2 million to the current 4.6 million, a surge that has placed additional strain on enforcement systems built around identifying and ticketing individual vehicles. He also noted that the city’s bus fleet has shrunk considerably from a previous high of 9,000 vehicles, a trend that has pushed even more commuters toward motorcycles as their primary mode of transport. He said the traffic system would show improved results over time as authorities work through the underlying identification and enforcement challenges that continue to affect the digital ticketing process.
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