The dysfunctional vehicle registration system

I bought and registered a car in October 2017.  To this day I drive with a temporary, stencilled, tin number plate, as the Sindh Excise and Taxation department has no mechanism for issue of regular number plates for the newly registered cars.  There are thousands of other car owners who suffer and have been suffering from the same malaise for the past several years.  In Karachi alone, this default on the part of the government has led to over 200,000 vehicles that go around with fake, personalised, AFR, foreign or stolen number plates.

What stops the Sindh Excise and Taxation Department, to perform such a simple and elementary task. Getting sufficient number plates made in advance and issuing them on ‘day 1’ of the car registration, is a normal practice in most countries.  The regular number plates should be issued    within 24 hours of the new car registration which must also be linked to biometric verification and the correct home address of the buyer.  This can be ensured by delivering the number plates only at the home address mentioned in the registration documents.

Lastly the Sindh E&T Department must be questioned for not adopting the electronic or mobile money transfer system for yearly payment of motor vehicle tax. The desire to retain archaic and torturous processes is simply in explainable. Can we once again, for the hundredth time, request the Sindh Chief Minister to push the E&T department to get its act together.