Police officals inspecting the unclaimed vehicles. -APP Photo/Abid zia

KARACHI In a bid to avoid misuse of unclaimed vehicles lying at the centralised vehicles` pool, commonly known as Nazarat, the government has decided to auction off all the 5,694 vehicles, it has been learnt.

Officials said that 144 four-wheelers and 850 two-wheelers would be auctioned off in the first phase next week. The process to auction off the rest of the vehicles would be completed by June 30, 2009, they added.

Established in 1992, the centralised vehicles` pool is being monitored jointly by the city government and the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee. Nazarat enables people to locate their vehicles, recovered after being stolen or snatched, at one place instead of looking for them at different police stations.

However, a number of vehicles at the CVP were given to people other than their owners by the provincial home department on `supardari`. The authorities admit that the facility was being misused by sleuths of intelligence agencies, government officials, police officers and influential figures of the city and that they never like auctions to take place, as they would have to surrender the vehicles obtained on supardari.

`Regular auctions of these vehicles would definitely help avoid misuse of the facility,` said CPLC chief Sharfuddin Memon. `Since the formalities have been completed, we would expedite the process and try to get rid of the whole stock by the end of the first half of this year.`

He said that the authorities concerned had exercised a procedure under Sections 523 (procedure by police upon seizure of property taken under Section 51 or stolen or procedure where owner of the property seized is unknown) and 524 (procedure where no claimant appears within six months) of the Criminal Procedure Code before initiating the auction process.

`The last auction was held in January 2008 after a lapse of nine years and it generated Rs14.82 million for the CVP,` said Mr Memon. `In that auction 626 two-wheelers and 136 four-wheelers were auctioned and the process was successfully completed within the stipulated time.`

The central auction committee, presided over by the EDO revenue, comprises the head of Nazarat, representatives of the CPLC, headquarters of Rangers, headquarters of Five Corps, the home department, the excise and taxation department and the provincial police officer, which is supposed to oversee the auction.

A senior official told Dawn that the government failed to streamline the system of regular auctions, which further complicated the situation and allowed the influential individuals and institutions to acquire the vehicles of their choice on supardari from Nazarat.

`The home department maintains a long list of such people, who are using the Nazarat vehicles, and one would only wonder if these names are made public,` he added. `But as we have started the process, we hope that no big backlog of unclaimed vehicles would remain to be utilised by the people other than their owners.`

He said that the delays in auction had caused the misuse of the vehicles and most of them had already turned into scrap due to lack of maintenance.