Islamabad Traffic Police has opened special pink counters for women at all of its police service centres and at traffic headquarters across the federal capital, giving women a separate, staffed route through two of the most common official procedures: driving licences and character certificates. The counters are now in place, they are run entirely by female staff, and women who use them are to have their requests dealt with on a priority basis rather than waiting in the general queue.
The idea behind the move is straightforward. A visit to a government service centre can feel crowded and slow, especially for a woman who has to wait among strangers and return more than once because a step is unclear. A dedicated counter changes that experience: it gives women a clearly marked place to go and staff who are there specifically to help them. For many women, that difference decides whether a licence renewal or a character certificate gets done promptly or keeps being put off.
At the new counters, women can get help with traffic driving licences and with character certificates, the document that employers and institutions often ask for as proof that a person has no adverse police record. The Islamabad Traffic Police spokesperson said the counters were created to provide these services in a safe, respectful and comfortable environment. That wording matters, because it frames the counters not as a cosmetic change but as a service standard: privacy is protected, conduct is respectful, and the surroundings are meant to feel comfortable rather than intimidating.
Only female staff members have been assigned to the pink counters. That choice is central to the initiative, since it allows women to discuss their applications, hand over documents and ask questions without hesitation. The department has also directed its staff to address women’s requests on a priority basis, which should cut down on repeated visits and long waits. In practice, a priority system only works if it is applied consistently at every centre, so the real test will be whether a woman visiting a busy Khidmat Markaz finds the same prompt service as a woman visiting traffic headquarters.
Chief Traffic Officer Kainat Azhar Khan has presented the initiative as part of a wider commitment to making public services safer and more dignified for women. She has said that protecting women’s privacy, dignity and convenience, and making services genuinely accessible, remain top priorities for Islamabad Traffic Police, and she has encouraged women to visit police service centres and make use of the new facilities. Her message is also an invitation: a facility only helps people if they know about it and trust it enough to walk in.
The counters sit within a broader pattern of change at Islamabad’s traffic service centres. The city has already moved its driving licence system to a paperless model, under which applicants no longer need to carry a bundle of physical documents through every stage from medical assessment to final issuance, with the original Computerised National Identity Card serving as the main identification needed. Dedicated counters for women and senior citizens were part of that earlier modernisation, and the department has also used mobile facilitation vans to take licensing services closer to residential areas and major markets, including in the evening hours. The pink counters build on that direction by making the women-only arrangement visible and available at every service centre rather than only at selected locations or times.
That context helps explain why a small administrative change can matter beyond the counter itself. A driving licence is, for many women, a first step towards independence: it allows a woman to drive herself to work and to apply for jobs that require mobility. A character certificate is often a gatekeeper document, needed for employment or further study, so a delay in obtaining it can hold up a much larger plan. A counter that shortens that wait therefore has a practical effect on women’s everyday lives, even though it involves no new law and no large building project.
The initiative will, however, be judged on its everyday operation: whether female staff are actually present at all centres, whether priority handling means a genuinely shorter visit, and whether the same standard applies when a centre is busy. Keeping it consistent across every Khidmat Markaz and at traffic headquarters will be the work that turns a launch announcement into a reliable service.
For now, the message to women in Islamabad is simple. The pink counters are open at police service centres and traffic headquarters, they are staffed by women, and they are there for driving licence and character certificate work. Women who have been putting off a licence application or a certificate request now have a dedicated place to start, with staff whose job is to help them through it promptly and respectfully. If the counters live up to their promise, they will quietly remove one more everyday barrier between women and the official documents they need.
