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By Roy Zia Ur Rahman
ISLAMABAD, Jan 18 (APP):Saqalain’s story is not just his own. It is a quiet plea that echoes through thousands of homes in Islamabad where a motorcycle is not a luxury or comfort, but the thin line between earning a day’s wage and losing it. In recent weeks, heavy enforcement, repeated checkposts, and rising fines have turned that necessity into a daily risk. Official figures show tens of thousands of motorcycles impounded in just days, while only a handful of cars faced the same action, raising serious questions about unequal enforcement and whose lives bear the real cost of the law.
Saqalain is a daily-wage polish worker. He paints doors and furniture wherever a contractor sends him. For years, reaching work meant changing two or three buses and vans and then walking long distances inside Islamabad’s wide sectors. If he arrived late, his contractor cut his daily wage. He wakes up before sunrise, already tired from the previous day.
Saqalain lives in a rented single room in a low-income settlement adjacent to Ghauri Town. He came to Islamabad from Tatta Hakiman village in Sargodha with a simple dream: to earn an honest living and educate his children. Reality, however, has been harsher. Out of his children, only one daughter and one son are able to attend school, while the others stay home and help their mother manage household work. Saqalain’s wife contributes to the family income by working as a domestic helper in nearby homes.
Recently, Saqalain’s life took a frightening turn when he suffered a heart attack. Doctors inserted a stent, paid for partly through donations from well-wishers and partly through loans. Those loans still weigh heavily on the family. Saqalain returned to work as soon as he could, knowing that illness offers no relief from rent, food expenses, or debt.
To avoid being late and losing his daily wage, Saqalain bought a second-hand motorcycle for Rs45,000 on instalments. He believed the bike would save time and protect his income. Instead, it exposed him to a new form of pressure.
Saqalain told APP that he is stopped repeatedly at police checkposts. His clothes, often stained with polish after long hours of work, make him feel like an easy target. Sometimes he is questioned on the roadside. Sometimes he is taken to a police station. If documents are forgotten in the rush of the morning, he said, the fine is rarely less than Rs2,000.
His daily wage ranges between Rs1,500 and Rs1,800. The impact is immediate and painful. A Rs2,000 fine is more than a full day’s wage. The same fine is about 4.4 percent of the total value of his motorcycle.
Earlier, Saqalain told APP, it was the contractor who used to cut his wages for being late. Now, he pays much more than that in traffic fines. If the motorcycle is taken to the police station, the entire day is lost. For a daily-wage worker, that means no income at all for that day.
Official figures from Islamabad’s first 12 days of 2026 show that Saqalain’s experience is not an isolated case. More than 46,000 motorcycles were checked during this period, and over 30,000 were shifted to police stations, meaning around 65 out of every 100 motorcycles faced further action. In contrast, more than 11,000 cars were checked, but only 25 were shifted, amounting to about 0.23 percent. Put simply, a motorcycle was almost 300 times more likely to be taken to a police station than a car.
For riders like Saqalain, these numbers translate into lost wages, stress, and growing debt.
Tahir Azad, a government employee, told APP that he passes through Faizabad daily and is stopped frequently, sometimes up to ten times a month. He said security is important and necessary, but in practice, most stops target motorcyclists, while car owners are rarely questioned.
Bilal, a supervisor at a battery company, shared a similar experience with APP. One day, after forgetting his documents at home, his motorcycle was taken to a police station. He said his entire day was wasted, his children waited outside school, and he spent the day in anxiety and humiliation without money or papers.
Mudassar, a civil engineer, told APP that recent incidents reveal a troubling contrast. He referred to incidents at Faizabad and in the I-9 sector where cars, including a Vigo pickup, were involved in misbehaviour and scuffles with police. These incidents were reported separately as cases involving car drivers and owners of expensive vehicles. Yet, he noted, official data shows cars rarely face the same level of action as motorcycles.
Wajeeh ul Hassan, who works in accounts at a private company, told APP that motorcycles are mainly used by the poor and lower-middle class, with used bikes costing between Rs25,000 and Rs250,000. For Saqalain’s Rs45,000 motorcycle, a Rs2,000 fine equals about 4.4 percent of its value. For a car worth Rs10 million, the same fine amounts to only 0.02 percent of its value, meaning the burden on a poor rider is more than 200 times heavier.
An ITP official told APP that motorcyclists commit more lane and line violations, increasing congestion and accident risks. He said officers enforce fines according to the law and do not decide the amounts themselves.
This, however, is not just Saqalain’s story. It reflects the daily struggle of a whole economic class for whom the road is not a choice but a necessity. These are workers whose survival depends on reaching work on time, whose income is counted in hours, and whose smallest setback can push the household into debt.
Few people deny the need for traffic rules or security. But when enforcement means one group pays a fine and drives on, while another pays the same fine and loses a full day’s income, the cost of the law is no longer equal.
For Saqalain, and for many like him, the price is not just Rs2,000. It is another exhausted day, another missed earning, and another reminder that on Islamabad’s roads, poverty pays a heavier penalty.