Non-registered vehicles

QUETTA: Quetta and the rest of the province of Balochistan have suffered through a lot of terrorist attacks, sectarian violence, lawlessness, killings, torture, abduction for ransom and many more crimes in recent times. Many non-registered vehicles were used for these crimes. This led the chief justice to issue directives to crack down on non-registered vehicles and cancel all the rahdaris or authority letters given to some people by our security agencies. Since the day the chief justice ordered the crackdown on non-registered vehicles, the innocent people of Quetta are facing a new headache as they are frequently stopped at checkpoints on the pretext of checking to see if the vehicles being used are registered or not. In reality, security personnel stopping vehicles at checkpoints never demand to see the car’s registration papers; they only demand ‘chai pani’, which they seem to think is their lawful right.

Not just the police, customs and the FC, now men in civilian clothes are also indulging in this activity. On the other hand, non-registered vehicle owners travelling in cars with tinted windows and carrying weapons continue to get away with their misdeeds. The directives of the chief justice are not being followed in the way he intended and are having an impact opposite to the one he must have wished for when issuing his orders.

Malala Barrech

Published in The Express Tribune, September 19^th, 2012.