Drive against fancy number plates, tinted glasses starts

The Karachi traffic police on Thursday initiated a campaign against fake and fancy vehicle registration number plates as well as tinted glasses across the city.

Shortly after taking over as the Karachi police chief, Additional IGP Ghulam Nabi Memon had announced launching a special drive against fancy and substandard number plates of vehicles on August 1, advising the people to display the number plates issued by the excise department or those in accordance with the notified pattern of the excise department.

The city police chief also warned that action against fancy and substandard number plates would be taken without any discrimination, saying that besides imposing penalties on the violators, motorcycles and other vehicles could also be impounded.

According to the spokesperson for the Karachi police, challans were issued to 933 vehicles for fancy registration number plates and fines of Rs466,500 issued, while 377 vehicles were challaned for tinted glasses and Rs377,000 fined, as 523 number plates were also confiscated.

Police officials, along with representatives of the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee and the excise department, could be seen checking cars at various checkpoints throughout the city and confiscating all the fake and fancy registration number plates.

According to the district-wise breakdown of challans and fines issued for tinted glasses, 141 vehicles were challaned with fines of Rs141,000 in District South, 38 vehicles were challaned with fines of Rs38,000 in District City, 95 vehicles were challaned with fines of Rs95,000 in District East, 44 vehicles were challaned with fines of Rs44,000 in District Korangi, and 59 vehicles were challaned with fines of Rs59,000 in District Malir.

As for fake, substandard and fancy number plates, in District South 14 motorcycles were challaned with fines of Rs7,000, 62 cars were challaned with fines of Rs31,000 and three jeeps were challaned with fines of Rs1,500; in District City 37 motorcycles were challaned with fines of Rs18,500 and 25 cars were challaned with fines of Rs12,500; in District Central 61 motorcycles were challaned with fines of Rs30,500 and 226 cars were challaned with fines of Rs113,000; in District East 116 cars were challaned with fines of Rs58,000; in District Korangi 13 motorcycles were challaned with fines of Rs6,500 and 32 cars were challaned with fines of Rs16,000; in District West 182 motorcycles were challaned with fines of Rs91,000 and 68 cars were challaned with fines of Rs34,000; and in District Malir 10 motorcycles were challaned with fines of Rs5,000 and 84 cars were challaned with fines of Rs42,000.