Hundreds of recovered vehicles rusting away in ACLC’s custody

ISLAMABAD: Hundreds of vehicles are rusting away in custody of ACLC, pending auctions.

The Anti-Car-Lifting Cell (ACLC) was formed in 2007 to control the incidents of car theft and robbery. The ACLC recovers stolen cars and pursues car theft cases in courts. The cars recovered from solved cases remains in custody of ACLC until they are returned to their respective owners but some of these vehicles are impounded for forged documents and some are with ACLC because they were totalled in car accidents.

The recovered stolen cars are not a problem because they are returned to their respective owners, but wrecked cars and cars with forged numbers remain a liability for ACLC.

Under the law, these cars can be auctioned after getting the clearance from courts but the administration failed to do so, as a result, the cars which ACLC currently has in its custody are deteriorating with each passing day, making the vehicles useless.

On the other hand, the concerned authorities say that the auction of these vehicles is not fruitful as buyers hesitate to show interest in cars which are tempered with despite getting a clearance letter from the authorities because these cars cannot be registered like normal vehicles.

As a result of this negligence, the parking lots where these vehicles are dumped look like junk yards and become safe havens for drug addicts. Not only these junk yards provide shelters to the drug addicts but also they become sources of financial support for their addiction. They steal cars parts from these yards and sell them for drug money.

What is left after the abuse of drug addicts become the property of corrupt police officials who take these vehicles under personal use as there is no one to question them.

According to one caretaker of the compound, there are more than 100 vehicles in these compounds waiting for their fates to be determined.

Source: DAWN