The relationship of law and crime makes an interesting study. Criminologists focus on criminal behaviours of criminals in their studies, while the lawyers look at lawmaking and its impact on society. An interesting emerging study in this area will be the impact of the amendments made to traffic laws in Pakistan (in the provinces of Punjab and Sindh). On 25th November 2025, the Government of the Punjab amended the Motor Vehicle Ordinance, 1965, through the Provincial Motor Vehicles (Fourth Amendment) Ordinance, 2025 (the 2025 Ordinance). The 2025 Ordinance has introduced many an amendment and must be studied by the students of criminology and governance to see how the law affects the behaviour and response of society. For this, the instant write-up will highlight the legal amendments and will also briefly discuss the latest trend of use of technology in policing in Pakistan.
Amendments to the Motor Vehicles Law
In Pakistan, the law related to traffic crimes was regulatory in nature. In 1965, the Motor Vehicles Ordinance, 1965, (1965 Ordinance) was promulgated with the object of regulating the following:
a. Licensing of drivers;
b. Registration of motor vehicles;
c. Regulation of public transport;
d. Construction, equipment and maintenance of motor vehicles; and
e. Penalties for traffic violations.
The law was comprehensive and offered a whole-of-the-government approach. At the outset, it was a federal law, but later on, in 1975, it was delegated to the provinces. The present scheme is that all the provinces have adopted and amended it as per their requirements. It may be noted that at the international level, owing to an increase in traffic all over the world, the concepts of road safety along with the regulation of traffic have evolved. Accordingly, new international and regional bodies measuring and providing international standards have emerged. Besides, these international and regional bodies issued metrics that measured the road safety and green roads. Insofar as the road safety index is concerned, the Asian Transport Observatory (ATO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) issued Pakistan's Road Safety Profile (2023), which was not enviable. It showed that 28000 people lost lives due to road crashes, accounting for 2.2% of all deaths in the country. It showed that the economic burden of road safety was much higher. As per data of 2021, the estimated cost of deaths and serious injuries was about 12 billion USD (or roughly 3% of Pakistan's GDP). In 2018, the National Road Safety Strategy (2018-2030) was introduced by the Ministry of Communications, Government of Pakistan. The Strategy lamented the fact that the laws of the country were outdated. It mentioned the National Highways Safety Ordinance, 2000 (that established the National Highways and Motorway Police) and noted it was materially different from the 1965 Ordinance; therefore, it prescribed updating and amending the 1965 Ordinance. In any case, the present amendments have finally qualitatively attended to the concerns highlighted by international organizations and by the 2018 Strategy. It will not be out of place to mention that the 2025 Ordinance was primarily drafted by the very energetic police leader Dr. Athar Waheed (who is posted as the City Traffic Officer, Lahore) who championed for the law reforms in this important domain and was instrumental in getting it enacted.
The salient features of the 2025 amendments are:
a. Digitalization of licensing and ticketing system
The 2025 Ordinance provides legal cover for Driving License Information Management System (DLIMS) and for e-ticketing. Earlier, e-ticketing was introduced without amending the law and the courts had struck it down, as it was not covered by the law. Through these amendments, the legality requirements of digital initiatives of police and law enforcement have been addressed.
b. Criminalization of traffic crimes
The earlier regime of the traffic crimes was regulatory in nature in the sense that the violation of the traffic laws was penalized with fines mostly. The corporal punishment was seldom imposed, and the courts treated the matter quite generously. With the enhanced corporal punishments, the criminalization of traffic crimes is much more pronounced. In addition, the district police is partnering with traffic police to enforce the law with the same level of commitment as it does for heinous crimes. As a primer, it may be noted that the following new offences have been added to the legal framework:
i. Driving motor vehicles on the wrong side
ii. Use of tinted glasses
iii. Underage driving
iv. Using a vehicle without a fitness certificate
v. Public transport exceeding speed limits
vi. Prohibition of over-dimensional vehicles
c. Point system for traffic violations
The point system for traffic violations is a new feature of the 2025 Ordinance. Out of a total of 20 points in a year, besides a fine, a driver of a motor vehicle may have to lose points on each violation. The system is likely to disqualify delinquent drivers with recidivist tendencies.
Unlike the Punjab, the Government of Sindh has used delegated power under the 1965 Ordinance to enhance fines and to introduce a points system through a notification that was issued on 1st October, 2025. It covered both the moving traffic violations as well as parking violations.
d. Policing traffic crimes
The penal policy of enhancing fines and introducing corporal punishments has been buttressed by using technology for enforcement. The automated enforcement through the infrastructure of the Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA) that uses cameras to collect evidence for traffic violations has been a powerful tool. It has introduced a gender-neutral and class-neutral model of enforcement. It is being backed by Artificial Intelligence (AI) to bring in more efficiency. With the upscaling of the PSCA from the capital city of Lahore to 140 small cities of the Punjab, the impact of automated enforcement backed by video evidence is likely to redefine the enforcement landscape. With the use of technology, the traffic police officers can now focus more on the flow of traffic and the automated enforcement can identify the violators and book them by logging all the violations.
Concluding Remarks
The IT-based policing coupled with deterrent penal policy has started showing promising results as the traffic control has improved on the roads of the Punjab. The combination of technology, law and criminology has brought in governance dividends that are likely to bring in cultural change in the behaviours of the road commuters. Earlier, it was axiomatic to talk about the rule of law through the lens of traffic laws' enforcement, which is likely to qualitatively change with the new legal and technological developments.
The author is an independent researcher and has done his BCL from the University of Oxford. Email: kamranadilpsp@gmail.com
