Vehicles’ Whammy

Police in Sindh are reluctant to crack down against unregistered vehicles

SUKKUR: Ghulam Yaseen is an assistant sub inspector (ASI) in the Sindh Police. He hails from Sukkur division and is currently part of the team that is tasked with managing and controlling traffic in Sukkur city, the third largest urban center of the province of Sindh.

Yaseen issues tickets to the drivers who violate traffic rules. He issues four to five tickets every day to owners of the vehicles not registered with the Excise and Taxation Motor Vehicle Department.

The traffic policeman admits that the actual number of unregistered vehicles that he encounters every day on the roads of Sukkur is in dozens if not in hundreds. However, he ignores them or allows them to go after a warning as most of these vehicles are awaiting their registration.

“When we ask the drivers why their vehicle does not have a number plate, they tell us that they have applied for their vehicle’s registration with the Motor Vehicle Department and that the department is delaying in issuing a number plate. “That is why we usually don’t impose fines on the people driving unregistered vehicles,” he added.

According to an estimate, there are thousands of unregistered vehicles – mostly cars, rickshaws and motorbikes – on the roads of Sindh. The use of such vehicles is rampant in the rural areas but even in urban centres like Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur one frequently comes across such vehicles.

Javed Iqbal, a traffic policeman currently serving in Karachi, agreed with ASI Yaseen. He said the traffic police cannot issue tickets [challan] to all unregistered vehicles as “it will be unjust given the fact that they have applied for registration and the relevant department is delaying in the registration process.”

However, the Excise and Taxation Motor Vehicle Department, when contacted, denied the claims that it was not registering vehicles and issuing number plates to them on time.

Asif Ali Khoso, a motor vehicle tax officer posted at the Excise and Taxation Directorate, said the department is registering thousands of vehicles every day.

“It is untrue that the Excise and Taxation Motor Vehicle Department delays in registering vehicles,” he said. “Our department has been created for registering vehicles and bringing them in the tax net.

According to Khoso, it is the responsibility of the police department and especially the traffic police to impose fines on vehicles that do not have number plates or that are not registered.

“These fines motivate the drivers to get their vehicles registered and will help in creating awareness about the importance of registration which in turn increases government revenues,” he said.

Khoso said the department and the district police have collaborated multiple times to launch crackdowns against unregistered vehicles which are impounded until their owners get them registered.

“If the police start seizing unregistered vehicles or start imposing fines on their owners, thousands of unregistered motorcycles, CNG rickshaws, cars and trucks which right now roam freely will be forced to obey the law,” he said.

The official said an unregistered vehicle is an easy target for car-lifting gangs as it becomes nearly impossible to trace such vehicles once they are stolen.

“When a vehicle is not registered, people face a lot of trouble finding it. However, it is not easy for a criminal to sell a registered vehicle,” he said.

Khoso said unregistered vehicles should be challaned under Section 550 so that when the matter reaches the court, the owner of the vehicle also gets a registered vehicle.

“People should also realize that if they can spend thousands of rupees in buying a vehicle then they should also spend some money in getting it registered as it also secures the vehicle and also helps them avoid embarrassment,” he added.