KARACHI: The Supreme Court on Monday directed the authorities to ensure that no vehicles having number plates with Applied for Registration (AFR), non-duty paid or with fancy number plates shall run on the roads in Sindh.

The SC also directed the authorities to set up a special counter for the registration of imported vehicles at the port.

A two-judge bench comprising Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Amir Hani Muslim also ordered the city administrator and traffic police chief to chalk out a joint strategy to end traffic jams in the city and to ensure a smooth flow of vehicles on the roads.

The bench also expressed its concern over the failure of the excise and taxation department to issue registration number plates to applicants in time.

Justice Osmany remarked that the owners of unregistered vehicles running on the streets were not civic minded. “They are bent upon violating the law,” he added.

The traffic police representative informed the judges that a crackdown had been launched against the vehicles having AFR or fancy number plates in the city and hundreds of such vehicles had been impounded.

However, he said, the vehicle owners complained that the excise department had not issued any official number plate for the past one year.

The bench ordered that the impounded vehicles shall not be released to their owners until registration by the excise department.

Excise and Taxation Secretary Mudassir Iqbal appeared in court to inform the judges that the contract for manufacturing official registration number plates had been awarded and the department would start issuing new number plates by mid-October.

Additional DIG-Traffic Khadim Hussain Bhatti told the judges that traffic police were short of staff and a reference for recruitment of 6,000 traffic constables had been sent to the provincial police chief.

The apex court during the implementation proceedings of its suo motu proceedings on the Karachi law and order case had directed the excise department on Nov 1, 2012 to ensure that whenever any motor vehicle, motorcycle or other vehicle was registered, its official number plates should be issued immediately and documents completed without any delay.

The court had observed that the serious problem of traffic congestion faced by the people of Karachi and the deteriorating law and order situation was the result of “patent illegalities and lawlessness as a result of their [excise and traffic officials] slackness, inefficiency and negligence in the performance of their respective duties”.

Meanwhile, the court directed the DIG-Traffic, secretary of the Defence Housing Authority and others to file their respective replies on an application of Irfan Merchant, a DHA resident, against frequent traffic jams and non-functional signals in DHA Phase-IV.

The bench directed the respondents to submit their replies within one month.

The applicant submitted that citizens and motorists had to remain stuck in traffic jams at Khayaban-i-Mujahid and other areas of the DHA due to non-functional traffic signals.

The court also directed the DIG-Traffic, DHA secretary and others to ensure installation of traffic signals at various roads and intersections of the DHA.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2015

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