KARACHI, March 15: An inquiry has been ordered into affairs of the motor vehicle registration wing of the excise department following the reports of some files missing from the record room.

This was stated by the Sindh Secretary Excise Subhan Memon while addressing a press conference here on Tuesday. He said that the inquiry has been initiated following news reports indicating the alleged misappropriation of the record. However, Subhan Memon said that according to the initial feedback received from the Motor Vehicle Registration (MVR) wing, the number of missing files could be less than the reported figure of 50,000.

Many files were gutted in the fire that had erupted in 1995-96, he said, adding that some files have also been taken by the sensitive agencies for the investigation purpose.

He claimed that around 9,000 files were in the safe custody. At the moment, he said, there were some 2.3 million files kept at the MVR wing.

Mr Memon said that the department was making efforts to introduce card system which would replace the registration book.

The secretary urged the Citizen Police Liaison Committee and the Anti-Car Lifting Cell to open their respective counters at the MVR wing at Civic Centre so that irregularities could be detected more efficiently.

Referring to the return of the original files to the owners, Mr Memon said that the excise department had advertised in the national dailies informing public to take back their files. He said that the department had no computer scanning facility at the MVR wing so far, thus while returning the original files the wing would copy the original files so that proper record could be maintained. While returning the files they would be defaced to discourage the misuse or reuse of the file, the secretary pointed out.

To curb the element of corruption, the secretary said that verification of the imported vehicles and registration of the diplomatic vehicles would not be carried out by the lower staff, but senior officials would be responsible for these tasks in future.