PESHAWAR, Jan 17: A number of Afghan refugees have obtained computerized motor registration numbers in violation of the vehicle registration law.

Sources said that the numbers had initially been acquired from the local registration authority by a government agency and subsequently ended up with the Afghan nationals.

Senior officials of the NWFP excise and taxation department are tight-lipped about the matter. An official said that more than 3,000 computerized registration numbers had been issued from a particular series to these Afghans living in Peshawar and other parts of the country.

The sources said that according to the NWFP Motor Vehicle Ordinance, 1965, registration numbers could not be allotted to aliens but these Afghans were somehow 'exempted' from this rule.

The government had also banned issuing driving licences to Afghan refugees, but the refugees managed to acquire driving licences for both light and heavy vehicles.

A senior traffic police official said that following the government directives, the traffic police issued driving licences to Afghans who provided authority letters from the Commisionerate for Afghan Refugees and previous year only 250 licences were issued.

Officials of the District Transport Authority said that the Central Board of Revenue had also issued directives about five years ago that Afghans should either pay customs duty on their vehicles or take them out of the country.

Following the decision, Afghan nationals had registered public transport vehicles in the names of local people, they added. Initially, an intelligence agency had provided 'AF' number plates to Afghan leaders and they had been allowed duty-free import of luxury vehicles from Afghanistan.

However, 'AF' number plates had been cancelled in the wake of reports that Afghans were misusing the facility and smuggling vehicles into the country. An inquiry was also conducted into the scandal and action was taken against some officials who abetted the practice in connivance with some Afghan commanders, sources said.

The sources said that after the AF number plates were cancelled, the agency concerned had obtained 'Peshawar-N' series of computerized registration numbers from the provincial excise and taxation department and reserved them for Afghan nationals. However, the department concerned did not have record of such vehicles.