LAHORE: The Lahore City Traffic Police (CTP) have fined, registered cases against, and taken away the number plates of at least 23,201 commuters over the course of their crackdown on illegal and fake number plates.
Furthermore, according to details available with Pakistan Today, of the 23,201 people pinpointed for number plate violations, there were 1743 cars stopped that did not have any number plates at all while 210 brand new vehicles had applied for registration and were being driven without the plates.
The remaining 21,668 vehicle registration number plates were fake and invalid, and have been taken away from the vehicle owners, who have been directed to get the correct, electronic, government-issued plates for their automobiles.
In this regard, Lahore Police in collaboration with the CTP have also registered criminal cases against 3 major manufacturers of illegitimate plates.
The crackdown had been started more than a week ago and is part of the Punjab Safe City Project. The action is not only restricted to the provincial capital; all vehicles moving in, out and within Punjab are subject to the same scrutiny.
A meeting was chaired last week by CCPO Lahore Capt (retd) Ameen Wains in which DIG Ali Amir, SSP Akbar Nasir Khan, Lahore CTO Rai Ijaz and other senior officials had decided to take the necessary steps to crackdown on the sale and use of privately manufactured number plates.
The police had given the explanation that the move was not only the correct procedure which should be followed on its own merit, but also a vital deterrent to terrorist activities. The logic behind it is that if all number plates are electronic and issued by the provincial government, it will be much easier to keep track of vehicle activity.
Action has been taken before this as well against fancy, decorated and deceptive number plates as well as their manufacturers in the form of fines. The unique feature of this campaign is that teams of policemen are actually stopping vehicles and removing these illegal plates.
