Daily Times

Sir: I am a tax-paying citizen of Peshawar and I have paid all the taxes and custom duties on my car. I have even updated the registration of my car to a digitised number. Many other honest citizens have also done all that the government of Pakistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have asked them to do. However, even now, I have to face uncomfortable traffic jams, busy roads and many hardships that are related to driving on the roads. All these hardships are faced by honest tax-paying citizens because of the excessive number of illegal cars plying the roads of Peshawar. It is shocking to see illegal or unregistered cars from FATA and Swat on our city’s roads, which have been there now for the past few years. Along with them, there are hundreds of cars that carry fake old-style number plates from Lahore and Karachi, a style that has been illegal for many years.

As a common citizen, I can see and point out fake registered cars easily. These cars will either have ‘applied for’ plates, if they are expensive cars, as the police do not bother their owners; if the car is a poor man’s car, then it will carry a fake number plate from Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, etc, which have all been banned since the arrival of digital number plates.

Even more disappointing is the fact that Peshawar has only two major roads and the Pakistan traffic police have a new software that can verify the number plates instantly, making it very easy for the local traffic police to control this menace and help free the roads from terrible traffic jams. However, for reasons best known to the Peshawar Traffic Police, the Federal Bureau of Revenue (FBR) and custom officers, there is no action taken against the illegal and unregistered cars being driven in Peshawar, the provincial capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. In Pakistan, the honest citizens have to suffer, while the dishonest and tax-evading citizens can enjoy all the benefits. That is the reason why Pakistan has one of the lowest numbers of tax-paying citizens — only 0.5 percent of our population.

SHAHRYAR KHAN BASEER

Peshawar