KARACHI: No special number plates in future, SHC informed
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, April 27: No personalized number plate for vehicles will be allowed in the province in the future and the existing ones may also be cancelled, a provincial attorney informed a division bench of the Sindh High Court on Wednesday. Additional Advocate-General M. Ahmed Pirzada submitted that the personalized vehicle registration marks (for example, Sardar-I) were introduced by a notification issued in July 1994. The notification was withdrawn by the provincial government last month. The withdrawal did not affect the existing personalized plates. The registration authorities of the excise and taxation department initially charged Rs2,000 but the fee was later raised to Rs 20,000.
A petitioner, Iqbal Hussain, moved a petition questioning the authorities’ refusal to allot a personalized number for his vehicle despite payment of the prescribed fee of Rs 20,000. He alleged that the registration officials demanded Rs 200,000 in addition to the fee for allowing him to use a personalized plate.
A division bench, comprising Justices Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Syed Zawwar Hussain Jaffery, allowed the petition and asked the excise and taxation department to allot the petitioner a personalized number since he had deposited the requisite fee before the revision of the notification and since the withdrawal decision was not to operate retrospectively.
The AAG said the personalized registration plates were abolished in view of their ‘adverse socio-psychological impact’. They also interfered with uniform application and enforcement of the traffic laws and rules. Personalized marks on vehicles could inhibit the traffic police from proceeding strictly in accordance with the law.
The decision, he said, was also in keeping with the constitutional provisions envisaging equality of citizens before the law and calling for an end to discrimination.
Under the July 1994 notification, ‘a personalized registration mark (in duplicate) comprising not more than seven letters in English alphabet inscribed on the plate shall be issued on the request of the owner and on payment of a fee of Rs 20,000 to be displayed in lieu of the original plate.
The personalized registration plate shall not be displayed or used on any other vehicle belonging to the owner except with the permission of the registration authority and on payment of an extra fee of Rs 5000 per vehicle’.
Personalized registration was allowed following the introduction of ‘choice registration numbers’ such as ‘1’, ‘786’ on payment of hefty amounts in 1982. The choice numbers were subsequently auctioned because of the growing number of applicants.
