ONLY in Pakistan will you see blatant disregard for rules and regulations. In the past few years, the automobile manufacturers of Pakistan, who have raised the cost of automobiles by almost 100 per cent compared to the ones assembled elsewhere, had worked very hard to stop the import of old or reconditioned automobiles into Pakistan.

The automobile manufacturers were not able to meet the demand for the local customers, and Pakistanis have to wait for six months and pay huge ‘bribes’ (called ‘on’ payment) to get their new Pakistani-assembled car.

Instead of increasing the production and supply of their products, the Pakistani manufacturers have been raising the price of their products on the basis that they have too high demands. Therefore, this has created a perfect opportunity for automobile importers to offer latest reconditioned models of Japanese-assembled cars at extreme discounted rates in Pakistan.

Giving the Pakistani citizen an opportunity to purchase a fully-loaded Japanese car at Rs1 million, while a Pakistani manufactured old model car, with no accessories, is available for double this rate and that too with a waiting time of six months.

It is no wonder that these recondition cars sell like hot cakes whenever they are imported in the country. But the Pakistani automobile manufacturers stopped the import of all recondition cars that are older than three years, reducing the number of cars being imported to Pakistan.

But with the latest announcement of the FBR to allow across-the-board amnesty to all people who have been using non-registered and non-custom paid cars for the past four years has created a new demand for these cars in Pakistan.

Unfortunately, many importers of automobiles have also applied to get their cars registered so that they will be able to sell them later. I believe that the FBR amnesty scheme should be available only to the public with a limit of one car per CNIC to be allowed for registration. No company or person should be allowed to register more than one car in this amnesty scheme as this scheme is for citizens of Pakistan and not for the importers and businessmen of Pakistan.

ROHAIL BASEER Peshawar