Traffic police in Karachi impound thousands of motorbikes ‘without legal authority’

• Official says no vehicle can be impounded if riders / drivers show identification, proof of ownership
• There are 4.5m motorbikes in Karachi and excise dept doesn’t have capacity to issue new number plates to every biker, says official
• DIG justifies seizure of bikes without excise dept issued number plates • Fines imposed on 13,280 citizens in one week
• Move draws public backlash as many suspect action aimed at sabotaging drive against violations by heavy vehicles

KARACHI: A drive by the city traffic police to impound citizens’ motorcycles on the pretext of not having the new excise department issued number plates drew strong reaction from people including within the department as many believed that this particular action is being taken without any lawful authority only to make the overall campaign against helmet, driving without licence, wrong-way violations by bikes, cars and heavy vehicles controversial.

The traffic police claimed to have impounded nearly 3,000 motorbikes and other vehicles over traffic law violations in Karachi over the past three days. Only last month, the Sindh chief minister was informed that the traffic police seized over 43,000 motorbikes between May 9 and 16 over different violations.

They said that the vehicles have been seized over charges of driving without number plates, sub-standard number plates, fancy number plates, non-registration, without licences and without helmets.

They said that only last week around 13,280 citizens — over 1,800 in a day — had been issued tickets over traffic violations in different parts of the metropolis.

However, a significant number of the vehicles seized include those without excise department issued number plates. There are more than four million motorbikes in Karachi and at least half of the vehicles were registered with the excise department more than 10 years ago; thus these bikes do not possess the new number plates.

Citizens have raised alarm over such “extreme and rigorous measures”. They say that traffic police are imposing extremely heavy fines on road users on minor traffic law violations.

They have particularly expressed concerns over impounding of motorcycles without the excise department number plates as there are hundreds of thousands of old models of motorcycles which do not possess these number plates.

The citizens have questioned the extreme measures, saying that impounding motorbikes on such “flimsiest of grounds of substandard number plates” was equal to depriving poor people of their jobs and occupations.

They say that fines on helmet and wrong way violations are acceptable to some extent, but those wearing helmets are being targeted by traffic policemen in many areas because the number plates on their bikes were not issued by the excise department.

The concerned citizens have expressed wonder as to whether this is an official policy based on legal grounds or some officers are just trying to undermine good efforts by the IG police and DIG traffic by adopting such controversial tactics.

‘No legal provision to impound vehicles’

A senior officer, who has served in traffic police, told media, on condition of anonymity, that there was “no legal provision to impound a vehicle on the ground of not having the number plate issued by the excise department”.

Citing relevant Sections of the Motor Vehicles Ordinance and criminal procedure code, the officer said that a vehicle could be impounded if a rider did not show his identification and proof of ownership of his vehicle. “There must be a reasonable doubt that the vehicle is a stolen property.”

The senior officer said that the policy of impounding vehicles not having excise department number plates was not based on legality. “It appears to be an administrative measure whose merits may be best known to concerned authorities.”

The officer added that there were an estimated 4.2 million registered motorcycles in Karachi.

Only last year, 127,000 motorcycles were registered in the provincial capital. The officer said that every month, around 11,000 motorcycles appear on city roads.

The excise department does not have the capacity to provide citizens with such a large number of registration number plates.

The senior officer said that only 10pc motorcyclists possessed number plates issued by the excise department.

DIG justifies vehicles’ seizure

However, DIG-Traffic Pir Mohammed Shah justified such an action of impounding vehicles without number plates of the excise department, saying that thousands of such number plates were ready for distribution and the excuse of long queues at the department was not justified.

“According to the excise department, over 60,000 number plates are currently ready, but are not being collected by the vehicle owners,” said the traffic police chief.

He added that the department now has an efficient system in place, and any new plate is prepared within just seven days.

He said, “The common excuse of long queues no longer holds the ground and what we’re seeing instead is a sheer negligence and laziness on the part of many vehicle owners”.

Call for awareness campaign before crackdown

Joint Director of Urban Resource Centre (URC) Zahid Farooq told media that before launching such a drive, the traffic police should have initiated some public awareness campaign.

Besides, citizens should have been given some time, say three months, to get such number plates and for this purpose, camps should have been set up at proper places with prescribed fees. he added.

Moreover, Mr Farooq added that it should also be ascertained whether the traffic or district policemen themselves have such proper number plates.

“It has been seen that policemen ride bikes with just ‘police’ written on the number plate.”

He said for licences, the same procedure should have been adopted by the authorities concerned by establishing camps at prominent places.

He said the city was facing extreme weather conditions with up to 50 degree Celsius temperature, which should also be taken into consideration before penalising citizens. “Every owner of a vehicle should have proper documents but such decisions should not be taken abruptly as it causes extreme inconveniences to citizens.”

Published in media, June 16th, 2025