I can only say something about the number plates relating to the state of Bahawalpur. In the late 50's (1956 I think) under one unit, Bahawalpur's status of being a state was dissolved and it became division. With the end of being a state, certain agreements were made with the then Govt./administration. One of them was that the Nawab could continue with the use of red plates. Before the mid 1930's the plates had the full name of the state written followed by a number. Later in the 1930's the letters BWP followed by two or three numbers. Red number plates were exempt road tax as per the original agreement but it was extended only to my grandfather.
In the late 90's my cousin Slahuddin Abbasi moved a petition in the National Assembly to restore the Tile of Nawab of Bahawalpur and with that he submitted a list of BWP numbers amongst other list of privileges which the assembly approved. Recently, some of my other cousins submitted another petition for approval to the Punjab administration to allow other family member to use such red BWP numbers. At present I do not know the correct legality of these number plates. All cars with red state plates also have regular registration numbers for the purpose of taxation. In Islamabad, where I live, the police will stop cars with such plates.
