PESHAWAR, March 12: An office of the anti-car lifting cell of police at the excise and taxation office on Shami Road has been closed down.

The office was established more than five years ago to check registration of stolen vehicles.

“The decision of police has created problems for the excise and taxation department as when we send documents of suspicious vehicle for verification to the Central Police Office, the officials concerned take many days to reply,” an official said.

People also faced difficulty in getting their vehicles registered as the department sent the

documents of their vehicles

for verification to the Central Police Office, sources said.

The decision might facilitate those involved in preparing fake documents of vehicles, they said.

Former chief minister Sardar Mehtab Ahmad Khan Abbasi had ordered setting up of the office about five years ago, they said.

A sub-inspector and a computer operator were deputed to check the documents of vehicles by comparing those with the record of the vehicles stolen throughout the country.

About five months ago, the sub-inspector was transferred and no one was appointed to replace him, an official in the CPO said. The CPO had also withdrawn the services of its computer operator, the official said.

The equipments were still in the office, which had been locked by police, the sources said.

They said the former chief minister had also ordered opening of a canteen on the premises to provide cheap food to

those who visited the excise

and taxation office but it

had been converted into a pizza outlet.