How to Check an E-Challan Online in Punjab by CNIC or Plate, and Pay It
Open echallan.psca.gop.pk, enter the plate plus CNIC or chassis number, and pay the PSID on ePay Punjab. Lahore, the fines and the deadline.
An e challan online check in Punjab takes one page and two fields. Open echallan.psca.gop.pk, the Punjab Safe Cities Authority portal, type your number plate and your 13 digit CNIC or the chassis number, and every pending challan against the vehicle appears with the violation, the place, the photo and the amount. Pay it with the PSID through ePay Punjab, a bank app, a wallet or an ATM. No officer in Punjab is allowed to take the fine on the road.
A camera flashed on Ferozepur Road three weeks ago and nothing has arrived on your phone. That is the usual reason people search for this, and the answer is that you do not need to wait for a message. We opened the PSCA portal on 17 September 2026 and it asks for exactly what is described below, which is less than most guides claim and more than some.
The e challan online check Punjab runs is free, works for any vehicle registered in the province, and covers Lahore first because that is where the Safe City camera network began. The fines it shows come from the Punjab Traffic Police schedule, which now puts a signal violation at Rs 5,000 for a car and Rs 2,000 for a motorcycle, according to the offences and penalties page on trafficpolice.punjab.gov.pk.
How do you check an e-challan online in Punjab?
On the PSCA portal, with the plate and one identity field. The form has two boxes, a captcha and a Search button, and nothing else. It does not ask for a mobile number, a licence number or a challan number, whatever a third party site tells you.
- Open echallan.psca.gop.pk. The domain is gop.pk, Government of Punjab. Anything else with the PSCA logo is somebody's website.
- Type the plate number. The portal itself lists the formats it accepts: ABC 000, ABC 0000 and ABC-00-0000.
- Type your CNIC or the chassis number. The CNIC goes in as 13 digits with no dashes, and the portal gives 1234567890123 as its example.
- Tick the captcha and press Search.
- Read what comes back. Each challan shows the violation, where the camera caught it, the date and time, the photograph and the amount due.
- Note the PSID. That 17 digit payment slip number is what every payment channel asks for.
The same search is inside the PSCA Public Safety app, which the portal links to on Google Play and the App Store. And the portal has a Sign in link for registered users, though the search itself needs no account.
Can you check without a CNIC? Yes, with the chassis number instead. Can you check by CNIC alone, with no plate? No. The plate is compulsory and the CNIC or chassis is the second key, so a search by CNIC finds challans on that vehicle rather than on every vehicle you own. Check each plate separately.
How do you check an e-challan in Lahore?
Exactly the same way, because Lahore is PSCA's home city and the portal was built for it. The Lahore Safe City cameras are the ones that generate most of Punjab's e-challans, and a Lahore challan shows on echallan.psca.gop.pk under the plate, not on any Lahore Traffic Police page.
PSCA's own page on the 21 violations its cameras detect tells you what Lahore drivers are actually fined for. The list runs from signal violations, speeding, wrong side driving and mobile phone use to no helmet, no seatbelt, triple riding, one wheeling, tinted glass, parking violations, driving without lights at night, and driving an unregistered vehicle. PSCA says that the moment a violation is detected, an automated challan is generated and sent to the offender via WhatsApp.
Three Lahore specifics that cause confusion:
- The challan follows the vehicle. If your brother was driving, the registered owner still gets it. A car sold without completing the transfer keeps generating challans in the seller's name, which is one reason Punjab now requires registration before delivery on new vehicles.
- A clean result means clean today. Challans are uploaded as violations are processed, so a check on Monday says nothing about Tuesday's camera.
- Islamabad and Rawalpindi are two systems. Rawalpindi is Punjab and shows on PSCA. Islamabad is the capital territory and runs its own portal, so a Rawalpindi car fined on the Islamabad Expressway is checked there, not here. Where each province keeps its records is in the e-challan portals for every province.
How much is a Punjab e-challan?
It depends on the violation and the vehicle, and the Punjab Traffic Police publishes the schedule. A motorcycle pays Rs 2,000 for almost everything a camera catches. A car under 2000cc pays Rs 5,000. A car above 2000cc pays Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000, and public service vehicles pay the most.
| Violation | Motorcycle | Car under 2000cc | Car over 2000cc | Public vehicle |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exceeding the speed limit | Rs 2,000 | Rs 5,000 | Rs 20,000 | Rs 20,000 |
| Traffic signal violation | Rs 2,000 | Rs 5,000 | Rs 10,000 | Rs 15,000 |
| Wrong side driving | Rs 2,000 | Rs 5,000 | Rs 10,000 | Rs 15,000 |
| Mobile phone while driving | Rs 2,000 | Rs 5,000 | Rs 10,000 | Rs 15,000 |
| Driving without a licence | Rs 2,000 | Rs 5,000 | Rs 10,000 | Rs 15,000 |
| No helmet | Rs 2,000 | None | None | None |
| No seatbelt | None | Rs 5,000 | Rs 10,000 | Rs 10,000 |
Those figures are from the Punjab Traffic Police page read on 17 September 2026. They are the rates that followed the Punjab Motor Vehicle Ordinance 2025, which Profit by Pakistan Today reported on 27 November 2025 as taking effect on the Governor's approval. The same report describes a penalty points system, two to four points per violation and suspension of the licence at 20 points in a year. We could not find the points rule on the Traffic Police or PSCA pages, so treat it as reported until it appears there.
One line on the Traffic Police page matters more than the table: no challaning officer is authorised to take a fine on the spot, and the fine is to be deposited online through mobile banking applications and other wallets. Anyone asking for cash at the roadside is outside the rule.
How do you pay an e-challan in Punjab?
With the PSID, on any channel that takes Punjab government receipts. ePay Punjab lists both the PSCA eChallan and the Traffic Police challan as services and says the 17 digit PSID can be paid at any ATM, through internet or mobile banking, at telco network agents, in mobile wallets or over a bank counter.
| Channel | What you need | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ePay Punjab app or website | The challan's PSID, a card, wallet or bank account | Run by PITB, linked to all banks through 1-Link |
| Your bank's mobile app | The PSID under government payments | Same rail as ePay |
| JazzCash or Easypaisa | The PSID | Named on the Traffic Police page as an accepted route |
| Any 1-Link ATM | The PSID | Cash or card at the machine |
| e-Khidmat Markaz | Your CNIC and the challan | Paid by bank challan, Monday to Friday 9 to 4, Saturday 10 to 1 |
| Bank counter | The printed challan | Over the counter payment against the PSID |
The e-Khidmat route is the one for a relative who has no app or account. The Punjab e-Khidmat Markaz service page lists Traffic e-Challan Collection, asks for the CNIC and the system generated challan, and says the bank on site receives payment the same day within its hours. How the ePay app itself works, from registration to receipt, is in the ePay Punjab app guide.
Pay through the PSID and the challan clears against the vehicle record. Pay a fake link and the money is gone and the challan is still open, which brings us to the next section.
Is the challan message with a link real?
No. PSCA delivers challans by WhatsApp, per its own violations page, and by SMS, which its earlier statements put on the short code 9915. Neither carries a payment link, and neither asks for a card number. A message that does either is a phishing attempt built on the fear a real camera creates.
The rule that defeats all of it is to never pay from a message. Open echallan.psca.gop.pk yourself, or open ePay yourself, and pay what those show. If you already tapped a link, the steps to take are in the fake e-challan SMS scam.
Is there a deadline to pay a Punjab e-challan?
None that any Punjab authority publishes. We read the PSCA portal, PSCA's violations page, the Traffic Police penalties page and ePay Punjab on 17 September 2026, and not one of them states a number of days to pay, a late surcharge or a blacklist. The 10, 15 and 30 day deadlines on other websites are not on any government page we can find.
That is different from Sindh, where the traffic police publishes a 14 day discount window and a doubling after 21 days, set out in checking a Karachi e-challan. Punjab has no equivalent notice, so the honest position is that a Punjab challan stays open until it is paid, and it does not grow on a timetable we can point to.
What an unpaid challan blocks is also less settled than the internet suggests. In August 2026 Lahore's chief traffic officer wrote to the DIG Traffic proposing that people with outstanding digital challans be refused CNIC, passport, licence and character certificate services. That is a letter, two of those documents are federal, and its stage is set out in the CNIC and passport block proposal. Until a rule is notified, the certain consequence of an unpaid challan is that it sits on the vehicle record and turns up whenever that record is checked, including at transfer.
Should you check the plate before buying a used car?
Yes, and it is the best use of the portal. The search accepts any plate, so with the seller's chassis number or CNIC you can see every pending challan on a car before you pay for it. Unpaid challans travel with the vehicle, and a seller may not know about a camera fine that went to an old address.
Do it in the same session as the ownership check, which is a different system. The route for every province is in vehicle verification online, and for Punjab specifically in checking a car's registration on MTMIS.
What if the portal finds nothing, or finds the wrong thing?
An empty result is usually a format problem. The PSCA portal returns silence, not an error, when the plate is typed in a pattern it does not recognise, so try the spaced, hyphenated and unspaced forms before concluding the record is clean. Older plates in particular do not match the newer patterns.
- Enter the plate as the portal shows it: ABC 000, ABC 0000 or ABC-00-0000.
- Try the chassis number if the CNIC returns nothing, because the registration may be in a family member's name.
- Do not treat an empty result as proof on the day you sell or transfer. Check again on the day.
- If the photo shows a different car, that is a cloned plate, and it needs a complaint rather than a payment, because the next challan will not be the last.
- Do not pay a wrong challan to make it go away. Payment closes the matter. Note the photo, location and timestamp from the portal and raise it through PSCA with the registration book and your CNIC.
That silent failure on a wrong reference number recurs across Pakistani government systems, and we found the same trap with NADRA tracking IDs. A blank screen means the query did not match, not that you are in the clear.
Common questions about the Punjab e-challan check
How do I check an e-challan by CNIC in Punjab?
On echallan.psca.gop.pk, enter the number plate and your 13 digit CNIC without dashes, tick the captcha and search. Pending challans appear with the photo and amount. The plate is required alongside the CNIC.
How do I check a Lahore e-challan online?
The same PSCA portal covers Lahore. Enter the plate plus CNIC or chassis number. Lahore has no separate challan website, and PSCA sends the challan itself by WhatsApp.
Can I check a Punjab e-challan by challan number?
Not on the PSCA portal, which searches only by plate plus CNIC or chassis number. If you have the challan, you already have the PSID, and that pays directly on ePay Punjab.
How do I pay a Punjab e-challan online?
With the 17 digit PSID on ePay Punjab, a bank app, JazzCash, Easypaisa or a 1-Link ATM. e-Khidmat Markaz centres also take payment with your CNIC and the challan.
How many days do I have to pay?
No Punjab authority page publishes a deadline or a late charge. The challan stays on the vehicle record until paid. Sindh's 14 day discount does not apply in Punjab.
How much is a red light challan in Lahore?
Rs 5,000 for a car under 2000cc, Rs 2,000 for a motorcycle, Rs 10,000 for a car over 2000cc and Rs 15,000 for a public vehicle, per the Punjab Traffic Police schedule.
Can a warden take the fine in cash?
No. The Punjab Traffic Police page states that no challaning officer is authorised to take a fine on the spot and that fines are deposited online or through wallets.
Last checked and sources
Last checked 17 September 2026. We opened the Punjab Safe Cities Authority e-challan portal at echallan.psca.gop.pk, which returned 200 and whose form asks for a plate number in the formats ABC 000, ABC 0000 or ABC-00-0000 and a 13 digit CNIC or chassis number, with a captcha, a Sign in link and links to the PSCA Public Safety app on Google Play and the App Store. We read PSCA's page on the 21 traffic violations its cameras detect, which states that an automated challan is generated and sent to the offender via WhatsApp, and its FAQ page, which covers recruitment only. We read the Punjab Traffic Police offences and penalties page at trafficpolice.punjab.gov.pk, from which the fines table is transcribed, and its statement that no challaning officer is authorised to take a fine on the spot. We read ePay Punjab at epay.punjab.gov.pk, which lists the PSCA eChallan and Traffic Challan services and describes payment of the 17 digit PSID at ATMs, internet and mobile banking, telco agents, wallets and bank counters, and the Punjab e-Khidmat Markaz service page for Traffic e-Challan Collection with its document list and bank timings. None of those pages publishes a payment deadline, a late surcharge, a blacklist or a rule blocking token tax or transfer, so none is stated here. The Punjab Motor Vehicle Ordinance 2025 and its penalty points are reported by Profit by Pakistan Today on 27 November 2025. The 9915 SMS sender is PSCA's published position as recorded in our fake e-challan SMS piece. The Lahore CTO proposal is reported and covered in its own article. Deadlines of 10, 15 and 30 days and an SMS lookup number quoted on third party sites were not found on any authority page and were not used.
About the author
Author
Ali Akhtar is a young and curious voice here at Pakistan Era. He is currently pursuing his A-Levels and has a growing interest in Pakistan’s changing industrial landscape and educational trends. Ali likes to write in a way that helps him explain and explore the world around him. His writing reflects the perspective of the new generation navigating the evolving trends of Pakistan where technology, youth innovation, and shifting opportunities are reshaping the country’s future.
