MINGORA: The district administration has started action against the workshop owners for rampant reassembling of the vehicles imported as scrap, thus adding to the traffic rush on the roads. The move has been hailed by people from all walks of life.

The administration on Friday confiscated over 50 such vehicles from different workshops and initiated legal action against the owners.

Malakand division is considered to be one of the major markets for non-custom-paid (NCP) vehicles and reassembling of the vehicles imported from Japan and Iran as scrap to avoid customs duties. Often, such vehicles are cut into pieces. But, later they are reassembled to be sold in the local market at rather cheap rates.

Only in Swat, there are more than 200,000 NCP and reassembled vehicles moving on roads causing huge traffic jams in Mingora and other major towns.

According to the unofficial data, 20 to 50 scrapped vehicles are reassembled daily which are then transported to upper Swat, Dir, Shangla, Kohistan and Gilgit-Baltistan.

However, on Thursday the Swat district administration sprang into action and made surprise raids on the workshops in Mingora where reassembling of scrapped vehicles is conducted. “We raided different workshops involved in illegal practice of reassembling disintegrated vehicles and sealed five workshops, besides seizing 54 vehicles and lodging FIRs against 15 individuals under sections 287,290 and 291 of PPC,” Assistant Commissioner, Babuzai, Abdul Nasir Khan said.

He clarified that the move was not confiscating the spare parts of vehicles but the reassembled vehicles which is illegal.

However, people alleged that different government agencies were involved in the practice, saying the so-called scrap vehicles, under the garb of spare parts, were transported to Malakand division where these were welded and reassembled and put on the roads without any check. “Majority of the spare parts dealers, many of them outsiders, are involved in the illegal business,” said Anwer Anjum, a local.

Another local said a reassembling of a car cost about Rs40,000 after the buyer purchased its pieces, paying about Rs200,000.

They stressed on the government to not be lenient towards these people.

“It takes about an hour to reach Nishat Chowk from Shahdara Chowk which is hardly one kilometre, and this is because of huge number of vehicles, including NCPs, and reassembled vehicles and rickshaws plying on the roads. Till date, the government has kept silence over the issue,” Zawar Khan, a resident of Kanju, deplored.

Some residents expressed apprehension over the district administration’s intent, saying such moves fizzled out in the past.

Published in Dawn November 19th, 2016