KARACHI: A five-star hotel in Karachi has received an electronic traffic ticket for a car stolen nearly three decades ago, an incident that has raised fresh concerns about gaps in Pakistan’s newly expanded camera-based enforcement system.
The case comes as Karachi rolls out a “faceless” automated ticketing program that began operating on Oct. 27. The system uses more than 1,000 surveillance cameras to detect violations without stopping drivers, a reform police say will reduce corruption, improve compliance and eventually be expanded to 12,000 cameras under the city’s Safe City project.
But the rapid introduction of digital enforcement has exposed a key weakness: the lack of fully integrated vehicle-registration and crime databases across Pakistan’s provinces, allowing stolen vehicles, or stolen number plates, to reappear on roads undetected.
The hotel’s owner, who asked not to be named, told Arab News the company received a Rs10,000 ($36) electronic ticket on Oct. 28 for a seatbelt violation recorded the previous day at the NHA Hub Toll Plaza. The violation was linked to a 1997 Suzuki registered to the hotel but the vehicle had been stolen in 1997 and never recovered.
“Upon investigation, it turned out that the vehicle for which the e-challan was issued to us was actually not the one that had been stolen,” he said. “Our vehicle was a Suzuki Mehran, and this was a different vehicle… registered in Balochistan with the same number plate.”
According to police records reviewed by Arab News, the original Suzuki Mehran was reported stolen under FIR 122/97 at Karachi’s Saddar Police Station on May 22, 1997.
Karachi, a megacity of over 20 million people, has long struggled with chaotic traffic, weak enforcement and limited data sharing between agencies. Officials say the new system is a step toward modernization, but residents say it must be accompanied by better record-keeping and integrated digital systems to prevent errors involving victims of theft.
Deputy Inspector General (Traffic) Syed Peer Muhammad Shah acknowledged that stolen plates resurfacing on unrelated vehicles is an emerging issue under the digital system but argued it demonstrates the system’s usefulness.
“When a vehicle is reported stolen, there is always a possibility that its number plate may be used on another vehicle. We have encountered 2–3 such cases already, where plates of stolen cars were affixed on other vehicles,” Shah told Arab News.
“When such a plate appears in violation, the system issues an e-challan. After verification at our Facilitation Center, we close the challan for the actual owner and blacklist the offending vehicle.”
Once blacklisted, he said, the vehicle is automatically flagged by Safe City cameras or seized by district police. Shah added that using a stolen vehicle constitutes an offense under Section 411 of the Pakistan Penal Code, and said misuse of number plates “to conceal identity is also punishable.”
He dismissed suggestions that the incident showed flaws in the digital ticketing system.
“This is not incorrect ticketing,” he said. “The system is helping us identify stolen plates, tampered identities and mismatched registrations. It is a rectification process, not an error.”
Shah acknowledged, however, that identical number sequences across provinces — especially when provincial identifiers are unclear on plates — can trigger wrongful tickets.
“These issues will continue until nationwide integration of all registration authorities is complete. Once that happens, such cases will be permanently resolved,” he said.
The incident follows a similar case weeks earlier in which a Karachi resident received a Rs5,000 ($18) violation notice linked to a motorcycle stolen years ago. Karachi police say the automated system has issued more than 70,000 tickets in the past 20 days.
