LAHORE: The Punjab Excise, Taxation & Narcotics Control (ET&NC) Department and the Lahore traffic police have launched “a massive but premature” joint crackdown on motorists for using unauthorised registration number plates and started imposing heavy fines on them.

The operation has been launched despite the fact that the former failed to deliver 2.1m ‘number plates’ to the applicants while it has received fees in advance years back.

Before the launch of the operation, the Lahore traffic police released a statement, giving powers to the traffic wardens to initiate legal action against the ‘violators’ under the Motor Vehicle Ordinance 97-A, directing the police to lodge the FIRs on the use of old number plates for imprisonment up to two years and fine up to Rs200,000.

A car rider, Arshad Ali, says he had applied for registration of his car with the ET&NC and the new number plate. He got the registration book on time but the number plate was never issued.

2m vehicles await ET&NC registration plates; police impose fine on 18,555 motorists

“I am a teacher travelling 14km daily to reach my college. I feel threatened by the traffic police who are imposing heavy fines on the motorists for using older or unauthorised number plates.”

Ali has to change his route from the main roads to the small arteries to avoid police pickets.

“Is there any authority to check the stupidity of the officers of these two government departments?” he bursts out in anger, terming the ongoing crackdown of the traffic police a ‘drive to mint money and fool higher authorities’.

Another car rider says he has noticed many brief scuffles and arguments between the wardens and the motorists over heavy fines and threats of two-year imprisonment.

The officers have been allowed to also lodge criminal cases against the manufacturers of the number plates for imprisonment up to a year and a fine up to Rs100,000, the traffic police statement has said.

The haphazard operation has started at a time when, according to the official record, the ET&NC failed to deliver 2.1m ‘number plates’ despite getting an advance fee. Some people have been awaiting registration number plates since 2019.

The matter of the backlog of pending number plates in Lahore has also been discussed in some high level meetings.

Of the total pending number plates, half are of the motorists from Lahore and the total amount the ET&NC obtained from the vehicle owners is estimated to be over Rs1.5bn.

In the ongoing operation, 17 teams of the traffic wardens and 12 of the ET&NC are rounding up motorists on all major roads of the city.

Among the causes of the delay, the alleged incompetence of the ET&NC and cumbersome procedure are included.

On the other hand, the ET&NC has witnessed a huge rush of consumers whose number is increasing with every passing day.

The motorists are running desperately in the corridors of the ET&NC office to get their number plates to avoid prison and heavy fines.

Talking to Dawn, Punjab Excise, Taxation & Narcotics Department Director-General Sherwani has confirmed that 2.1m cases are pending for release of license number plates.

He claims his department has brought the matter of the pending registration number plates to the notice of the Lahore police many times. Though the number has dropped from 2.9m to 2.1m, the backlog is yet to be cleared, Mr Sherwani admits.

“We awarded a contract to a new company in Oct 2020 and are trying hard to expedite the production of the license number plates. The earlier company, which was awarded the contract, had obtained a stay from the court, which caused delay in issuance of number plates.”

The DG ET&NC says half of the pending number plates are of motorists from Lahore and the vehicles include cars, motorbikes, rickshaws and commercial vehicles.

To a question as to how people can avoid heavy fines and punishments, Mr Sherwani has given a ‘strange suggestion,’ saying they can get number plates from the local manufacturers, resembling the authorised ones.

While releasing a break-up of last week’s operation against the motorists, the traffic police say the wardens have imposed fines on 18,555 vehicles for using the unauthorised number plates.

The cars were fined Rs500, motorbikes Rs200 and the commercial vehicles were issued tickets of Rs1,000 on average, and the amount collected by the traffic police in a week is in the hundreds of millions of rupees.

However, the department has made it clear that the wardens were strictly directed to take action against those motorists who were using fancy number plates, invisible/unreadable or those who displayed the plate against the ‘Punjab Specific Graphical Design / Logo,’ instead of standardised number plates.

Lahore City Traffic Officer Muntazir Mehdi didn’t attend calls made to him for his version.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2022