LAHORE: The Punjab government is introducing a bill in the provincial assembly on Wednesday (today) to allow for automotive registration of vehicles, and ownership of their registration numbers, a step that is a part of the overall plan to reform the motor vehicle and transport system.

The reforms have been made by the Chief Minister’s Special Monitoring Unit (Law and Order). The bill is aimed at amending the Punjab Motor Vehicle law. Two ordinances that were earlier promulgated to amend the same law to provide for other portions of the reforms, will also be presented in the session.

Official sources said on Tuesday the bill and the ordinances were likely to be passed by the assembly during its current sitting.

With the passage of these amendments through the bill, the current system of vehicle registration books in Punjab will be replaced with Automotive Registration Card (ARC) which would include real-time information on the vehicle and its owner.

The information includes the owner’s name and nationality, record of traffic offences, vehicle model number and chassis number. The law-enforcement agencies and the excise department will be able to scan the ARC, using portable readers at any point of contact with a vehicle owner. This will provide effective replacement for confiscation of the vehicle owner’s documents whilst ensuring outstanding penalties are paid.

Since ARC will be computerised, any violation committed by vehicle will be updated on the card and will therefore be available for law enforcement and excise department officials to carry out requisite investigations. Similarly, excise department will scan the card in the event of vehicle transfer or at the time of token tax payment to check records of any outstanding fines and make sure their payment is made.

The existing registration mechanism has great room for inefficiency. Counter-terrorism is rendered inefficient in regard to tracking down vehicles used in terrorist activities as the record of vehicle transfer is under the owner’s discretion.

The excise department is involved in the tedious process of stopping vehicles on roads and confiscating documents of citizens to ensure that they adhere to law and transfer the vehicle on time which proves to be both inefficient and cumbersome for both vehicle owner and the official concerned.

Additionally, effective law enforcement requires the removal of absolute human presence in the mechanism. These problems can be solved by the proposed SMU reform as the licence plate will be linked to the owner as opposed to the vehicle. Therefore every time the vehicle would undergo a change in its owner, it will require a new number plate to be issued. The previous licence plate number will be removed and the new owner of the vehicle will be issued a new licence plate number.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2016

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