Road accidents in Punjab have become a daily threat to life. From reckless lane cutting to helmet-less riding, the highways and city arteries of Lahore and beyond have turned into arenas of carelessness. In such a climate, a crackdown was inevitable and the government has started it through traffic cameras. Deterrence, in principle, is a public good. Without it, rules become suggestions and every red signal becomes an invitation to gamble with fate.

But last week's arrests — over 3,100 people in 72 hours, many of them schoolchildren — reveal what happens when enforcement jumps ahead of preparation. The police may have meant to send a strong message, yet what citizens received was something very different. Motorbike riders, who constitute the bulk of Pakistan's urban commuters, were treate

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