Policing failure: Unregistered bikes plying roads

Bike owners deliberately avoid getting number plates citing high registration costs

PESHAWAR:

Although not really known for actively enforcing traffic laws, the city of flowers’ police can now add another feather to its cap for failing to curb the relentless rise of unregistered motorbikes in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) capital.

Either due to a disregard for their duty or just sheer helplessness in trying to enforce the writ of the state, Peshawar’s traffic police has consistently failed to get unregistered motorbikes, which are often used in the commission of street crime and terrorism, off the city’s roads.

As per information obtained by The Express Tribune by the provincial Excise Department, Peshawar is home to more than 150,000 unregistered bikes. The Express Tribune also learnt that out of the 150,000 number, about 100,000 motorbikes’ registration has already been processed but their respective owners have failed to show up at the excise office to pick up the number plates for the past 6 months — which officials believe is a deliberate act.

Farooq Khan, who has been running a motorcycle dealership in Peshawar for the past decade, has no doubt that bike owners deliberately avoid getting number plates. “Whenever someone purchases a bike, we provide them with a company receipt and ask them to take it to the Excise Department for registration,” explained Khan, “however, they skip going to the excise office and instead drive around with impunity, using the company receipt as proof of ownership.”

Khan further said that motorcycle owners who claim that they do not get their bike registered because of the high costs are lying “because it only costs Rs 4,000 for the entire process.” However, it is perhaps unfair to put the blame entirely on motorcyclists as the traffic police does not care much for catching unregistered motorbikes, according to Khan. “They [traffic police] run a campaign against unregistered bikes once in a blue moon and then call it a day.”

This apparent disregard for enforcing traffic laws means that unregistered bikes can easily be used to commit crimes. Evidence of which is the cold-blooded murder of Muhammad Amir, a resident of the Chamkani area, who was shot by robbers riding an unregistered motorcycle and thus have not been identified yet.

In this regard, Riaz Khan, the Spokesperson for K-P Police, while talking to The Express Tribune, conceded that in Peshawar unregistered motorbikes are relied upon heavily by criminals involved in mobile phone snatching and robberies. “However, we have taken action against 32,913 unregistered motorcyclists in the past 13 months,” he hastened to add.

The Express Tribune also spoke to Peshawar’s SSP Traffic, Qamar Hayat, regarding the department’s failure to get unregistered motorbikes off the city’s roads, who informed that the sale of unregistered motorbikes has now been outlawed. “Now, motorcycle dealerships and dealers will make sure that the registration process is completed before they allow a bike to leave their shop,” said Hayat, adding that dealerships across the city had already agreed to such stringent measures. “If anyone is found aiding the sale of unregistered motorcycles, they will face harsh legal consequences,” cautioned Hayat while talking to The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 10^th, 2023.