Driving License – Karachi

Driving License…….. After getting good news that one can re-new the license without paying any bribe, last week I decided to give it a try after a long long time. I downloaded the form from Traffic Police website, take its printout, fill in the form, attach all required documents and get ready to get the license.

Note: You can get the form, required information and traffic sign book from Traffic Police website & can contact me in case of any query (not for any link there 🙂 ).

My Visit:

To get a renewed license I [Step-1] reached Clifton branch at 9:30 in the morning and went to the information desk. They verify my form and required document, staple documents and paste the photos on the form, after this he told me to go to Post office room 4 for fee submission then room 2 for medical and finally room 3 for picture and application submission.

[Step-2] I went to room 4’s post office window and submit the fee for 5 years that is Rs. 1860, [Step-3] then went to another window of room 4 and got a ticket of Rs. 100. After getting receipts of fee and token [Step-4] I came in room 2 for medical at around 10:00, no token or line were available here but you can sit on available chairs and wait. At around 10:30 a person calls everyone to line up, his statement was “ajao bhai saray idhar ajao jo pahlay ay thay agay ajao line bana lo” as if everyone knows who come in first and even if knows then are innocent enough to get in line at his own number 🙂 . Fortunately I got the chance at 5^th place in the line. (The person who asked us to line up check form and asked to go to helpdesk and get everything staple. If you have plans to go there then it’s better to get them staple before coming into this room.) On my turn I got in the room and the doctor asked me to read the characters on the board for eye side testing, I was not able to read the characters he wanted me to read but he stamped the form & I was declared as fit. Now the last step is to submit the form and picture in room 3. I had to [Step-5] pay Rs. 125 for license card and submit the form, I did so and wait for my call. After around 20 minutes they called me, I get in happily that now they [Step-6] take my picture and it’s all done. But 😦 the shocking news that I received is that my current license is not original & he ask me to go back to Information Desk.

This is something which was very disturbing and in fact the reason of writing this blog.

History:
The history of my license is that in 2001 I went to license office with an ASP who took Rs. 2500, complete all the requirements including medical and photos and handover me the license next day in my office. So anyone who get there license the same way or any similar way like pay amount to anyone there and saved their time must go and verify it. [Person on help desk and at learner section confirms that it is normal here and a possible case.]

Note:
From above experience of mine you can easily get an idea that you do not have to worry about bribe or any other issue if you have original license and would like to renew it. In case of new license the problem is the written and oral test, one cannot guarantee that even if you replying and writing correct answer you can pass it.

Visit Continues:

On the help desk I told him the updated story, he asked me to go to learning license section and check with the help of my NIC either I have a learners license or not, fortunately I have that. So I asked to fill the learner license form, submit Rs 200 fee for it, get a new learner license, take it to DSP who mark the name of the tester on it. After doing all this activity I finally reach the person who has to take my exam he handed over a paper with 12 questions on it, I have to mark True or False. The result is 7 out of 12 were wrong and I had the choice of only two wrongs. So I was FAILED 😦 .

Now he asked me to come again after 45 days and put a failed stamp on my form. Now I am in search of material with the help of which I can prepare for this Exam 🙂 .

Doubt:
Yes! It is not impossible that I can’t fail in this exam but the things that put me in doubt about the result are:

–        The written test is not mentioned on Traffic Police website.
–        Nothing related to these questions is mentioned in traffic booklet. I have already read it.
–        There were some answers about which I was sure that they are correct but still he mark them as wrong. May be I am  wrong 🙂 (By the way I gave traffic test on India and England websites and gave around 90% correct answers)

You can share your experience in comments or via email.

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