Daily Times

LAHORE: The City Traffic Police have launched a massive crackdown on fancy, fake and illegal number plates, besides taking action against unregistered vehicles in the provincial capital.

In this regard, as many as 10 teams have been constituted, consisting of traffic wardens, city police officials as well as members of the Excise and Taxation Department, who will take action against violators in different areas of the city, especially at the entry and exit points.  This was decided in a meeting held at the Punjab Safe City Authority office, chaired by Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Amin Wains.   DIG Ali Nasir, SSP Akbar Nasir Khan, CTO Rai Ijaz, SPs, DSPs and senior traffic officers were also present on this occasion.   The CCPO said that special teams had identified the loopholes the terrorist had been taking advantage of and had suggested that in order to initiate a crackdown in the domain of vehicle registration and issuance of unauthorised licence plates, it was essential for the departments to coordinate with each other to initiate work from the grassroots level to create processes in the departments which would eventually create a system that would feed into the National Action Plan and eliminate terrorism.  He said that the Excise and Taxation Department with complete support from the city police would soon initiate a crackdown on manufacturers of fake number plates.

The Provincial Motor Vehicles Ordinance prescribes penalty for counterfeiting or unauthorised preparation of number plates and makes it mandatory for people to display security-featured number plates on their motor vehicles.  Chief Traffic Officer (CTO) SSP Rai Ijaz said that traffic police had issued tickets to at least 26,000 violators during the last two days. He added that divisional SPs and circle in-charges would supervise the campaign in their areas and take measures to eradicate the trend of using non-prescribed number plates, vehicles without number plates, and unregistered vehicles. He said that special squads had been constituted for the crackdown on illegal activities on city roads.  The CTO said that the use of vehicles having illegal green number plates, not having number plates at all and having other types of non-prescribed number plates was an illegal act and every citizen should avoid breaking the law. He said that traffic police had started imparting traffic education to students in different educational institutions, at bus stands and other places to spread awareness regarding traffic rules, in which senior police officers not only deliver lectures but also distribute pamphlets and booklets. He said that the City Traffic Police Lahore would also start an awareness week soon across the city.  He directed the wardens to take action against violators of traffic rules in accordance with the law and keep a vigilant eye on suspicious vehicles. Strict action in accordance with the law has also been ordered against owners of vehicles, including motorcycles, moving in the city without number plates or having fancy, fake, applied for and illegal number plates, he added. While stressing the need for making people aware rather than fining and issuing them tickets, the CTO said that he had directed the traffic wardens to educate citizens instead of ticketing. “For this purpose we are planning to conduct meetings and workshops for different associations of rickshaws, wagons and other transport unions… to educate them about traffic rules.”

Published in Daily Times, October 4^th 2017.