The Sindh government has decided to change the number plates of vehicles in the province of Sindh. Vehicle owners are required to buy the new number plates by a deadline that has already passed with many vehicles still using the old number plates and deadline after deadline passes away with the threat of vehicle confiscation and challans of hefty amounts of penalties threatening vehicle drivers who have not as yet changed their number plates. This decision to change number plates was a bolt from the blue.
The matter really under consideration was the increasing number of fatal accidents, especially in the metropolitan city of Karachi. In that context many proposals were made that ranged from stricter physical fitness evaluations to having more disciplined motorcycle drivers who will have motorcycles in better shape than presently are visible on our roads and better adherence to traffic rules including obeying such vital instructions as one way indicators and of course that never to be complied with instruction of wearing a helmet.
How all these plans converted into this singular drive for change of number plates and how it will prevent traffic accidents is anyone’s guess but right now this is the singular most important traffic campaign underway in the province of Sindh.
The new number plates are very artistic having Ajrak as a background. There is some difference of opinion on this design but of course in such a large province this was bound to be the case. A number plate has a very small area to accommodate all points of view so everybody cannot be really accommodated .Even in a country like the USA the slogans on number plates vary from province to province.
In New Hampshire, for example, there is a very revolutionary slogan: “Live Free or die”. New Jersey, on the other hand, declares itself as the “Garden State” and Maine as the “Vacation Land”. In Canada, they are a little more artistic as is evident from registration plates issued in the Northwest Territories which are shaped like a polar bear. British Columbia, Manitoba, and Ontario are the only Canadian provinces that require both front and rear registration plates. The remaining provinces do not require front registration plates.
Most Canadian provinces also issue “vanity license plates,” which allow drivers to customize their number plates. A very commendable act, which can also be copied by us, is the award of special number plates to people with disabilities that would allow them to parking privileges and other benefits reserved for the handicapped.
Personally, I think the number plates in the province of Sindh could be made more attractive if they also had a slogan and the slogan could be one that unites the people of this province such as “Sindh. Land of “Saints & Sufis”.
The number plates currently being dished out by the Sindh Excise Department are priced as they would say as low as peanuts compared to some of the number plates priced in our neighboring countries. There is Dubai’s ‘AA8’ for £7.9 million, Abu Dhabi’s ‘1’ number plate for £6 million, and ‘09’ in Dubai for £5.5 million. Dubai’s exclusive ‘7’ plate for £3.2 million and then of course there is Lucky ‘28’ for £1.6 million in Hong Kong. The price of number plates in which you could buy a car.
I am sure that if our concerned department also floated the idea of specialized number plates at exorbitant prices there would be many candidates vying with each other to get hold of one no matter what the price. Actually, as the tendency goes the higher the price the more attractive and more exclusive it would be for the buyers. The money so collected could be used for repair of roads and overhead bridges, etc., that are desperately in need of attention from the concerned authorities.
As I was writing this news came that there are second thoughts about the change in number plates in Sindh. I hope that they make some positive changes instead of dropping the scheme all together. Too much effort and time has been invested in this scheme to just let it drop and start all over again.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
The writer is a well-known columnist
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