SHARJAH // Shoppers can now pay their traffic fines while they browse the stores with the opening of a new police station at Sahara Mall.
The station, which will also offer immigration and other police services, is the first of its kind for the emirate, said Brig Abdullah Mubarak Al Dukhan, the deputy director general of Sharjah Police.
"The experience of this station could encourage us to open similar ones in other shopping centres," he said. "At present we have a study of two other similar stations, one in Al Dhaid and another in the eastern region but we need to first see how this one works."
The station is open to the shoppers as well as residents of the Al Nahda and Al Khan neighbourhoods and nearby industrial areas.
Engineer Omar Abdullah Al Suwaidi, the director of police stations in Sharjah, said police certificates, such as ones for good conduct, were available at the mall station, which also has a traffic and licensing section where people can pay their fines and process licences.
"We shall only be considering new vehicles for one to three years registration and renewal as they don't require testing and we don't have testing services here," he said.
Civil Defence will also host fire safety programmes for the shoppers at the station.
Muhammad Shahwani, who was shopping at Sahara Mall, said it was always good to have easy access to police services, particularly at shopping centres.
"Going to a police station for a minor matter can be daunting but if the police are in a mall where we always go, one can easily pass by and get the service from there," he said.
"I already have my driving licence and do not have a new car to register but at least I can apply for the good conduct certificate."
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The specs
Price, base / as tested Dh1,100,000 (est)
Engine 5.2-litre V10
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Power 630bhp @ 8,000rpm
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
