National Highways Safety Ordinance, 2000

The National Highways Safety Ordinance, 2000 regulates safe driving on Pakistan's national highways, covering who can hold a driving licence, how licences are issued and renewed, and penalties for traffic violations committed on national highways.

Section 4 sets minimum age requirements for drivers: 18 years to drive a motorcycle or motor car (other than as a paid employee), 21 years to drive as a paid employee of a transport vehicle, public service vehicle, motor car, or animal-drawn vehicle, and it bars driving a transport vehicle after age 60. It also requires a medical certificate (Form "B", signed by the Chairman of a Medical Board) before a transport-vehicle licence can be issued or renewed. Section 5 makes it an offence for a vehicle owner to knowingly let someone drive who doesn't meet these age or fitness requirements.

Sections 6-9 set out the licence application process: applicants must apply in the prescribed form, may need a medical certificate and photographs, must pass competence tests set out in the Fourth Schedule, and must possess a copy of the Highway and Motorway Code. A licence for a heavy transport vehicle additionally requires the applicant to have held another road-vehicle licence for at least three years. Once granted, a licence is valid throughout Pakistan (Section 9). Section 10 sets its initial validity at one year and then five years on renewal, and Section 11 covers the renewal procedure, including a requirement for a fresh medical certificate for transport-vehicle licences after five years, and stiffer requirements (a fresh competence test) if renewal is sought more than a year after expiry.

Sections 12-14 allow a licensing authority to cancel a licence on medical grounds, or disqualify a person from holding a licence for reasons such as being a habitual drug addict, a habitual criminal, using a vehicle to commit a cognizable offence, dangerous driving history, or habitual drunkenness -- but only after giving the person a chance to be heard, and with a right of appeal within thirty days (Section 13).

The extract also includes part of the Eighth Schedule, which lists specific traffic and parking violations with fixed fine amounts, for example: driving without a licence (Rs.750), driving an unregistered vehicle (Rs.500), driving without a "No Fault Insurance" certificate (Rs.1,000), driving on the wrong side of the road (Rs.500), and a range of Rs.150-500 fines for offences like improper crossing of railway tracks, obstructing traffic, and various parking violations. Because this schedule may have been revised since enactment, these figures should be checked against the current official text before being relied on for a specific case.