Stolen motorcycles are increasingly being used to manufacture motorcycle rickshaws which have become a cheap and popular mode of transport for commuters in Pakistan’s commercial hub, Pakistan Today has learnt.
Such motorbikes are usually snatched from the city’s residents or stolen from parking lots of business and commercial centres. Sources said high ranking officials from major political parties are involved in this crime and are operating transport businesses unhindered.
In most cases, there is no license plate on these vehicles while law enforcers do not bother to check the documents of such rickshaws which are a modified form of the two-wheeler ride. Even when the provincial home department imposed Section 144 in the violence-hit metropolis, enhancing patrols and snap checks on motorcycle owners, these motorcycle rickshaws remained outside the authorities’ scrutiny.
This negligence on behalf of the law enforcement agencies is resulting in residents being continuously deprived of their motorcycles while more of these rickshaws are appearing on roads each passing day. This perhaps implies a positive correlation between motorcycle theft and the rise of motorcycle rickshaws on various routes in the city.
Investigation into the matter revealed that around 30,000 motorcycle rickshaws are operating in the city and a striking 50 percent of the motorcycles used in manufacturing this kind of rickshaws are obtained illegally. There is no official record on the number of such rickshaws roaming about on roads or the routes they cover.
Sources told Pakistan Today that these rickshaws are operational on numerous short and long routes of the city. In Gulshan-e-Iqbal Town alone, there are seven short routes that these modified vehicles cover which run between Safari Park to Al Asif Square, Safari Park to Shad Bungalows, Jauhar Morr to Samama Centre, Al Asif Square to Muhammad Khan Goth, Nipa Chowrangi to Sohrab Goth and Jauhar Morr to Pehlwan Goth. The three major routes in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Town are Nipa Chowrangi to Saddar, Nipa Chowrangi to Sakhi Hassan and Nipa Chowrangi to Karimabad and Liaquatabad.
Sources further said there are two types of motorcycle rickshaws found in the city- one which is completely manufactured by a particular company and the other in which the owner of the rickshaw provides a two-wheeler to any of the companies which attach a carriage to that specific motorcycle.
“Most of the motorcycle rickshaw operators use stolen bikes to run this high revenue generating business,” a contractor operating on one route in the city told Pakistan Today. The contractor, who wished not to be named, said that a stolen motorcycle is available at Rs 15,000 in the market while the original cost ranged between Rs 40,000 to Rs 60,000. “We usually purchase stolen motorcycles and get the body attached to it,” he added.
“More than half of motorcycle rickshaws use stolen motorcycles but we are helpless in controlling this menace because political parties and law enforcement agencies are involved in the business,” Karachi Motorcycle Rickshaw Association President Shahid said while talking to Pakistan Today.
“I have given a deadline to these rickshaw route operators to submit complete documents of their vehicles because we have concrete reports that some people use snatched or stolen motorcycles in manufacturing of their rickshaws to run this business,” Shahid said, adding that law enforcement agencies either turn a blind eye on the issue because of involvement of political parties or are in oblivion over this activity.
“We are just an association and not a law enforcement authority. We cannot bring such criminals behind bars but we have the authority to cancel routes of those involved in the illegal activity,” said Shahid. He further said that this was a very lucrative business and motorcycle rickshaw owners were generating revenues that would shock most people since they charged lower than other transport vehicles and attracted a large number of commuters on both, short and long routes.
Karachi Additional Inspector General (AIG) Iqbal Mehmood, when approached for his comments on the issue, said he was visiting a crime scene in the metropolis and had no information on the issue at hand. He sought time for homework on this relatively new phenomena trending in the city before taking further questions.
