If you are a car owner, it is quite possible that your car or car of someone you know might has been stolen in some point or perhaps you yourself or someone you know got affected from the theft of monograms or side mirrors of the car. There are many criminal gangs operating all over Pakistan and every other day some new way of theft is discovered.
Being a car owner, I myself have been a victim of car theft but I was lucky that with timely action, the car was recovered. People in Pakistan go to extreme lengths to make their assets secure, especially the car. There are many insurance companies and tracking companies, hell if one talks about bank leased cars, it is mandatory to have both the insurance and the tracker.
With this ever increasing wave of car theft, sadly our car manufacturers and government are both sleeping on the issue making the public to suffer. We hear all sorts of proposals, but on ground, nothing seems to be happening. Government was going to introduce Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) incorporated number plates then there was a talk of non-detachable number plates too, however, something of that sort is yet to be implemented. Now, we are hearing that as per the proposed new Auto Policy, all manufacturers are legally bound to install immobilizers in all of their cars. Immobilizers have been the talk of the town since ages, but we only see them in a handful of locally manufactured cars and it is observed that if the car equipped with an immobilizer, it is more likely snatched at gunpoint.
How is a car stolen and how do thieves manage to get away with it? Well it’s not rocket science, as I have observed it’s very simple. A group of thieves identifies a target and observes him for a few days. His sleeping habits, his travel routes, his regular parking spots are identified. Finally, when all this is done, they cleanly open the car by removing the rear quarter panel glass and hot wire the car to start. After this, they remove the original number plates and put on another one and by doing this, they can cross all police checkpoints undetected. And even at times, the owner himself sometimes cannot detect his own vehicle.
When a car is successfully stolen, there are many ways to make use of it. Some cars are stripped for parts and sold out, some cars’ chassis numbers are tempered so they can be sold in other province. In some cases, the stolen cars body is placed on a chassis of another car, which has clean documents, such as a car which was burned during a protest or something.
Majority of the stolen cars are never recovered. And even if they are recovered, there is no centralized data collecting system and these cars are used by police or rot away in impounds because owner does not know of its status.
The government and the automakers need to make collective efforts to contain and minimize this vehicle theft which has been increasing with each passing day. The first step should be to introduce immobilizers and VIN in all the locally manufactured cars so they are at least harder to steal for the thieves. Then the federal government should introduce some centralized database of these stolen cars, so the owners are at least updated on the status of these cars. If the government and automakers word together on this, I am pretty certain that they can curtail this issue to some extent.
What actions do you think the government and automakers should take to minimize the car thefts? Let us know in the comments.
ATLEAST introduce the basic security systems such as immobilizers as standard in all the cars.
Check the cars wihin the use of Police and Pakistan Customs and you will find more intresting facts.
poorly written article. No facts or figures given about number of vehicle stolen and rocovered. And where those vehicle go and details about Mafia involved?
Organized theft is a major problem here. Practically everything gets stolen including cattle, cars, gold, people are taken for kidnap etc. Even slippers from outside the mosque, water taps in ablution area and gutter lids in the streets are not safe.
Get your ideas straight first. Immobilizer, tracker and insurance for every car, truck, cow, buffalo, horse, human being, “chappal”, water tap, “lota”, and “gutter ka dhakkan” will not work at all. Instead of thwarting the crime, thwart the criminal. When the government gets it act together starts catching and punishing the real criminals, crime rate will go down and then we won’t even need doors on cars.
Yes crime is non existent in other countries and cars dont have any door nor locks
Yes indeed in other countries there is car theft nor any safety measures.
Police and Govt. officials are mafia themselves if i am not wrong …. yes i would say it is very important that the new local cars should be equipped with Anti-theft systems, dead locks, immobilizer etc .. My car have been targeted by some thieves about 6 months ago … they couldn’t stole my car as i lock it the proper way with a steering lock and some other locks i use so it takes about 3-4 good hours to break the locks i used so instead they opened the damn bonnet and stole my battery … anyway pakistan Govt. is not doing anything you have to do your own security and the security of your assets …. and must use steering lock
cars that get stolen you have 5 % chance of getting it back and 1 % percent chance if you get it in same condition as when u last saw it if thieves even left it complete condition all then the police ppl makes the move like CNG kits battery tyres spare wheel audio system or they used it for there personal use in my friends list there r 3 coure car 2 corolla 1 honda civic 1 cultus 1 daewoo racer and 4 125 bikes none were recovered soo in pakistan only thing is you can do is the only thing you can do police in pakistan is for just a formality and when u go to them to report that your car is stolen and your been robed and you walked to the police station they won’t white your complain until they get some CHAI PANI soo this is pakistan