Punjab Caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi paid a visit to the site, being used for car driving test at Gaddafi Stadium, here on Wednesday. While declaring the allocated place for taking the tests as inappropriate, he ordered for establishing eight centres at an appropriate place for taking the tests.
He ordered to functionalise the centres forthwith so that citizens should not face any delay or difficulty in getting licences. He said that tents should be established along with providing adequate sitting facilities to the candidates. Inspector General of Police Dr. Usman Anwar gave a briefing with regard to establishing a new site for taking the car driving test. Talking to the media, the CM said that there was a lot of public rush for obtaining the driving licences. “I have inspected the test centres site at the Gaddafi Stadium, but this site is inappropriate,” he said. Secretary Sports and CTO Lahore would jointly allocate a new site for the test centres, he added. “We will select an appropriate site for the purpose and inform citizens about bit as well,” he said. Mohsin Naqvi said that eight driving test centres were being established right from today [Wednesday], adding that citizens would not need to stand in the long queues. Adequate sitting arrangements would be made for citizens at the driving test centres. He said up till now, 11 million driving licences had been issued, adding that 100,000 driving licences were being made in Punjab on daily basis, he said. 30,000 driving licences were only being made in Lahore daily while 70,000 were being made in other cities, he added. Naqvi said that earlier only 2,000 to 3,000 driving licences were being made in Punjab daily. The CM disclosed that the driving licence fee would be increased four times from 16th of January, adding that citizens should obtain their driving licences in advance so as to save themselves from paying extra fee. Mohsin Naqvi revealed that more than 10,000 underage drivers failing to carry a driving licence had been arrested. He said underage and those driving a vehicle without a licence were being arrested without any discrimination, he said. They were granted bail after 2 to 3 days. In case of registration of an FIR, underage drivers and those driving a vehicle without a valid license could face many problems in their personal record, he warned. The CM said: “There was no plan of Journalists Colony phase 2, but we will decide about the working journalists residential; issues across Punjab in coming few days. We are not deciding about any colony under the shadow of a press club, but will announce for the working journalists across Punjab.” The CM said that the head of a parking company in Lahore had been transferred due to different complains and the charge had been handed over to the deputy commissioner. There was a parking mafia in Lahore and they used to take contract initially and then got involved in a parking company in Lahore.
