Officers zooming around in ‘stolen’ car

Up to 42 govt officers given vehicles deposited at the Central Vehicle Pool despite court orders.

KARACHI:

Stolen vehicles make it to the roads again - albeit with different owners. In Karachi alone, 42 government officials have been handed over vehicles deposited with the nazarath (Central Vehicle Pool) despite court orders against the procedure.

On the advice of the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), the Central Vehicle Pool was set up by the city commissioner in 1992 to avoid the misuse of recovered stolen vehicles in Karachi. The vehicles are to be released only to their legal owners under a system called “superdari” or auctioned off. A magistrate is available at the nazarath to issue release orders of the vehicles to their respective owners. Two years ago, a three-member apex court bench had banned the allotment of such vehicles to government officers on the basis of superdari.



But a recent CPLC letter addressed to the Sindh home department states some vehicles have still been given for official use that may attract contempt proceedings against the government. The home department oversees the overall working of the Central Vehicle Pool, where all vehicles stolen, snatched or used for crimes are stored.

The letter bearing the signature of CPLC chief Ahmed Chinoy asks the additional chief secretary of home department, Waseem Ahmed, to direct all the officers concerned to stop the process of superdari and return all such vehicles to the nazarath.

While taking note of the intimation, Sindh home department in return issued a communiqué dated December 6 to the Karachi commissioner informing him about the situation. The letter stated that the illegal practice of handing over stolen, recovered vehicles from nazarath was going on despite the orders of the Supreme Court in 2009. Earlier, the vehicles were retrieved and disposed of in a highly transparent manner through auctions held in Karachi in 2010, 2011 and 2012, it was stated. Waseem Ahmed has expressed serious concern over the violation of court orders and related it to indiscipline on the part of government functionaries, the letter stated, further requesting all such vehicles to be retrieved and deposited to the Central Vehicle Pool without delay. A comprehensive report in this regard was also sought at the earliest.



Also attached with the home department’s communiqué was the list of the 42 officers and the vehicles in their use. According to the list, five Sindh government officers were handed over such vehicles, including prosecutor, Maula Buksh Bhatti; personal secretary to Sindh chief minister, Mohammad Asim Karim; personal secretary to the prisons minister, Abdul Ghani; DSP Irfan Zaman of the Anti-Car Lifting Cell; and Shabbir Ahmed, personal assistant to special assistant of Sindh chief minister.

The remaining 37 vehicles were all handed over to the executive district offices, including Malir’s former deputy commissioner, Shaukat Hussain Jokhio, Revenue ADO-II Qazi Jan Mohammad, Karachi additional commissioner Kamran Shamshad, District East additional deputy commissioner Agha Pervez, Orangi Town assistant commissioner Tariq Qureshi, Malir additional deputy commissioner Mohammad Ali Shah, Karachi additional commissioner Rubina Asif, District West additional deputy commissioner Sher Hussain Shah, District East additional deputy commissioner Ali Sher Mirani, District South additional commissioner Afzal Zaidi, District East revenue assistant commissioner Nazeer Hussain Sheikh and DSP logistic cell Akhtar Mirza.

The name of District East deputy commissioner - who reportedly is the in-charge of nazarath - came up in the list along with three different vehicles.

CPLC chief Ahmed Chinoy told The Express Tribune that the practice is a clear violation of apex court orders and these vehicles should be returned by the officials.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th, 2012.