KARACHI: MVR wing lets over 50,000 files go ‘missing’
By S. Raza Hassan
KARACHI, March 13: As many as 50,000 files are missing from the motor-vehicle registration wing of the excise department.
Over the years, the figure has compounded as till 1995, there were some 12,000 files missing, claimed M. H. Shahzad, Chairman of the All-Karachi Motor Dealers Association.
Majority of the missing files pertained to the vehicles imported and registered in 1996-99 period, he said.
“In fact, these files have not gone missing, as being claimed by the MVR officials, but stolen as these are sold to those intending to get some other vehicle registered on these documents after tampering with the particulars in the papers,” revealed Mr Shahzad, who said that his association had complied data of the missing files which numbered more than 50,000.
A file of an imported vehicle has more attraction than the others because it contains import documents, such as import permit, bill of entry, papers of paid- up duties, etc. Using such a file for registering some other vehicle on it required a little amount of forgery which was not difficult at all, he explained.
An official of the Anti Car-Lifting Cell (ACLC) confirmed that recently, the ACLC had arrested an MVR wing official and recovered stolen files and registration books from his house. Similar recoveries had been made in the past also, but no punitive action had been taken.
According to the procedure, owner of a vehicle has to lodge an FIR if documents of his vehicles are lost. He is told by the MVR officials to bring a copy of the FIR in order to get a duplicate file issued. The duplicate file, comprising copies of the FIR and the registration book, is kept by the owner. In addition, the owner has to pay some money unofficially and the amount varies, depending on the make and model of the vehicle. After going through the whole exercise, the file is handed over to the owner. The file bears the stamped words: “At owner’s risk”.
Mr Shahzad questioned the justification of keeping some 1.8 million files at the MVR wing, Civic Centre. He recalled that during the period of the former excise minister, the process of returning files to their owners had been started, but stopped abruptly for obvious reasons. This exercise, he added, had been resumed recently, but vehicle-owners had not been informed properly.
“What will happen if the record room catches fire accidentally, or someone resorted to starting a fire deliberately? The entire record of over 1.8 million files may reduce to ashes,” he contended.
A few years back, the MVR record room had caught fire when an Army Monitoring Team attempted to get into it with intention to check the records. Considerable loss of computer data and damage to network had been caused by the fire.
An average of 250-300 cases of vehicle registration and 600-700 cases of transfer are entertained at the MVR wing every day. Everyone having experienced some sort of dealing with the staff at the MVR wing knows how cumbersome the process is. Getting a vehicle registered or transferred is simply almost impossible if services of a broker are not acquired.
“It is often said that police collect Bhatta (extortion money) on monthly basis, but a few people know that at the MVR Wing, such a collection is made on a daily basis and the collective amount of the per day collection is beyond anyone’s imagination,” M. H. Shahzad claimed.
