The Sindh High Court on Thursday directed the Sindh government to file comments on the impugned notification with regard to the imposition of e-challan and amendments in the provincial motor vehicles (amendment) act.
The direction came on petitions challenging the “flawed” procedure and “excessive” amounts prescribed in the new e-challan system. Bus owners association, Jamaat-e-Islami Karachi Emir Monem Zafar Khan and others submitted that e-challan penalties imposed by the traffic authorities are heavy and unjustified and they cannot be imposed on the basis of personal desire and officials’ discretion.
The petitioners’ counsel Tariq Mansoor submitted that the notification of the e-challan system was issued on October 1, 2025 to amend the 12th schedule of the Motor Vehicle Ordinance 1965 but it was not published in the official gazette till December 1, and therefore all action taken under the notification are illegal.
He submitted that Section 121-A of the Ordinance was first inserted by the Motor Vehicles (amendment) Act 2023 for empowering the provincial government to amend any schedule to the ordinance; thereafter by the amendment Act of 2025 another Section 121-A was inserted in the ordinance to provide for traffic courts; however, previous section 121A was not omitted.
The provincial law officer submitted that he has recently received comments from the relevant authorities and the same will be filed within seven days after vetting. A division bench, headed by Justice Adnan Iqbal Chaudhry, directed the law officer to file comments on the legality of the notification on the next date of the hearing. The petitioners submitted that the citizens of Karachi are being discriminated against as they were being compelled to pay heavy fines on traffic violations as compared to other cities of the country.
They submitted that many traffic signals were not in a working condition on roads in different areas of the city, including Hasan Square, Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Saddar, Nazimabad, Garden and old city areas but e-challans are being sent to vehicle owners through the cameras installed by the traffic police.
They said many roads are under development or broken and without proper infrastructure and lanes and in such circumstances the imposition of heavy fines is unjust and uncalled for. They further said that speed limit boards are not visible on many roads and cameras used for the e-challan do not provide conclusive proof of a violation. They questioned discrimination in picking only Karachi for e-challans while this system was not being enforced in other cities of the province like Hyderabad, Sukkur and Larkana.
They claimed that vehicle owners are fined despite not actually having violated the law and they are paying the price for the flawed system of motor registration in the city. They also mentioned the “lack” of infrastructure and “wrongful” diversion of traffic by police because of under- construction projects. The petition also demanded parity in fines on par with other cities.
The court was requested to declare that all e-tickets being issued from October 1, 2025 have no legal value. They requested the court to suspend the operation, implementation and enforcement of the notification, as well as the e-challans, penalties and proceedings initiated against the residents of Sindh. They also requested restraining the government from issuing, processing and recovering any penalty until the final disposal of the petitions.
