How to Report Road Hazards in Pakistan: A Complete Guide

Pakistan loses an estimated 28,000 to 38,000 lives every year to road traffic crashes, according to WHO and Global Burden of Disease estimates. In Punjab province alone, 4,791 people were killed in road traffic crashes in 2025 — a staggering 19% increase over the previous year, according to Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) data. Many of these deaths are caused not by reckless driving alone, but by preventable infrastructure hazards: potholes that swallow motorcycles, open manholes that claim children, and exposed electric wires that electrocute pedestrians during monsoon rains.

The good news is that citizens now have tools to fight back. This guide walks you through how to report road hazards in Pakistan — step by step — so your voice can help prevent the next accident.

What Qualifies as a Road Hazard?

A road hazard is any condition on or near a roadway that poses a danger to pedestrians, motorists, or cyclists. In Pakistan, the most common hazards include:

• Potholes — Crumbling road surfaces that damage vehicles and cause motorcycle riders to lose control. Motorcycles account for 75% of all road traffic incidents in Punjab.
• Open manholes — Uncovered or stolen manhole covers that have turned streets into death traps. In Karachi alone, 27 people died from falling into open manholes and drains in 2025, including eight children.
• Exposed electric wires — Dangling cables and improperly buried high-tension lines that electrocute people, especially during rainfall and flooding.
• Flooding and waterlogging — Blocked drains and poor infrastructure turn streets into rivers during monsoon season. The 2025 monsoon killed over 1,000 people nationwide and rendered over 2,800 km of roads impassable.
• Broken roads and damaged surfaces — Cracked, eroded, or collapsed road sections that force drivers into oncoming traffic.
• Unsafe construction zones — Unmarked excavation sites and unbarricaded work areas. In January 2026, a mother and her infant daughter died after falling into an open sewer line at the Data Darbar extension project in Lahore.
• Broken streetlights — Dark roads that increase the risk of accidents, robberies, and pedestrian fatalities at night.
• Open sewage drains — Uncovered nallas and drainage channels that pose drowning and health risks, particularly to children.

Where to Report Road Hazards in Pakistan

There are three main channels available to Pakistani citizens for reporting road hazards:

1. MarkSafe (marksafe.net) — Fastest and Easiest

MarkSafe is a free, community-driven hazard mapping platform built specifically for Pakistan. It requires no account, no sign-up, and no personal information. You can report a hazard in under 30 seconds from your phone.

2. Pakistan Citizen Portal

The Pakistan Citizen Portal is the government's official grievance redressal system. It connects complaints to relevant departments at federal and provincial levels. You can download the app from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. Note that registration requires a valid CNIC, and response times can vary significantly.

3. Local Municipal Authorities

You can contact your local city government or development authority directly. In major cities, this includes bodies like the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), Lahore Development Authority (LDA), Capital Development Authority (CDA) in Islamabad, or Peshawar Development Authority (PDA). Contact information is typically available on their official websites.

How to Report a Road Hazard on MarkSafe: 3 Simple Steps

Reporting a road hazard on MarkSafe is designed to be as fast and frictionless as possible. Here is the step-by-step process:

1. Step 1: Drop a Pin
   Open marksafe.net/map on your phone or computer. Tap or click anywhere on the interactive map to mark the exact GPS location of the hazard. The map supports both English and Urdu labels, and works across every city in Pakistan.
2. Step 2: Add Evidence
   Select the hazard category (pothole, open manhole, exposed wires, flooding, broken road, or other). Rate the severity level. Upload a photo or video directly from your phone's camera — visual evidence makes every report more credible and harder for authorities to ignore.
3. Step 3: Community Validates
   Once submitted, your report appears on the public map. Other citizens in your area can see it and upvote it. Reports with more community validation are flagged as high-priority, creating a crowd-sourced ranking that surfaces the most dangerous hazards first.

The entire process takes less than 30 seconds. No account, no sign-up, no personal data required.

What Happens After You Report a Hazard?

Once a hazard is reported on MarkSafe, several things happen:

• Public visibility — The hazard appears on the live map for all users to see. This helps commuters, riders, and pedestrians navigate around dangerous spots.
• Community upvoting — Citizens validate reports by upvoting them. A hazard with many upvotes signals an urgent, verified danger.
• Data for advocacy — Aggregated reports create a data-driven picture of infrastructure failure. This data can be shared with journalists, NGOs, elected representatives, and government agencies to demand accountability and action.
• Awareness and prevention — Even before a hazard is fixed, the report serves as a warning. A parent checking MarkSafe before letting their child walk to school, or a motorcyclist routing around a pothole cluster, is a life potentially saved.

Tips for Filing an Effective Hazard Report

• Be precise with the pin — Zoom in as close as possible when dropping your pin. An accurate location makes it easier for others to find and validate the hazard.
• Always include a photo — A clear photo dramatically increases the credibility of your report. Try to capture the hazard from a safe distance with good lighting.
• Rate severity honestly — A minor crack is different from a metre-deep pothole. Accurate severity ratings help prioritize the most dangerous hazards.
• Report during daylight when possible — Photos taken in daylight are clearer and more useful. If you spot a hazard at night, you can always return to report it the next day.
• Share the report — After filing, share the report link on social media or WhatsApp groups. More visibility leads to more upvotes and faster awareness.

Why Reporting Road Hazards Matters

According to the Asian Transport Observatory's Pakistan Road Safety Profile 2025, the economic cost of road traffic fatalities and serious injuries in Pakistan was approximately $12 billion USD in 2021 — equivalent to roughly 3% of the country's GDP. That figure exceeds what Pakistan spends on healthcare.

As of 2024, only 1% of Pakistan's roads have a 3-star or better safety rating for pedestrians, compared to the Asia-Pacific average of 14%. For motorcyclists, only 15% of roads meet a 3-star standard. Every unreported hazard is a silent contributor to this crisis.

When citizens report hazards, they create an undeniable public record. Open data holds governments accountable. Community mapping turns invisible infrastructure failures into visible, documented, and shareable evidence.

Frequently Asked Questions