The Sindh High Court (SHC) allowed two-week time to provincial authorities to submit a comprehensive report showing full particulars of every vehicle in official use throughout the province and to whom these vehicles were issued.
The petitioners, residents of DHA and civil rights campaigners, moved the court seeking action against vehicle bearing fancy and fake green number-plates said to be used in criminal activities.
A division bench of the SHC headed by Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar adjourned the hearing of case on Friday when provincial law officer sought time to file comments of provincial government on the petition. The court granted the request of law officer while giving him two-week time.
The counsel for petitioners said a large number of unregistered private and official vehicles with illegal number-plates including applied for registration (AFR), fancy, and fake green and foreign plate were roaming around the city due to dereliction of the duty by traffic police.
The vehicles carrying illegal number-plates were highly prone to unlawful use by the criminals and have deteriorated law and order of the city, he added.
He referred to the survey conducted by Citizen Trust Against Crime (CTAC) which revealed that 4,000 to 6,000 official vehicles in field were not registered with the excise and taxation (E&T) department. It said that 35 per cent of the vehicles carried fake number-plates and many private vehicles carried number-plates with green background to depict these vehicles as official vehicles.
The counsel said vehicles with illegal number-plates were being used in different heinous crimes including kidnapping, smuggling, carrying and explosives.
He said record of private vehicles registered with the E&T department was not maintained properly as there were lot of discrepancies in the record. The court was requested to direct authorities to maintain the complete record of all vehicles in official use and order action against under-registered vehicles and vehicles bearing fake number-plates.