A few days ago in Peshawar, a road rage incident spiraled out of control when a teenager pulled out an M-16 assault rifle and fired at an unarmed motorcyclist, who had committed the crime of overtaking him and coming in the way of his car.

The white Toyota car was bearing a fake government number plate B-5258. The incident took place in the sensitive Cantonment area of Peshawar where vehicles are searched for weapons at all entry points. This vehicle however managed to dodge the search parties since it was impersonating  an official government vehicle, with its fake green coloured ‘Government of Pakistan’ number plate. Partly deterred by fear of reprisal and  partly assuming that government vehicles are used by trustworthy officials,  law enforcement agencies often let such vehicles go by without any serious search.

The link between fake government vehicles, weapons and terrorism has been repeatedly highlighted and is understood, it seems,  by every one except the law enforcing agencies of Pakistan. In the province of Sindh, there are an estimated two to three hundred thousand fake government vehicles that routinely park at wrong places, enter prohibited locations, generally violate all traffic laws, do not pay taxes and indulge in acts of crime and militancy on a daily basis. The police, meanwhile,  remains completely unmoved, apathetic and unwilling to capture this vital opportunity and crack down on this nexus, that puts criminals, weapons and crime in one metal box at the same time.

Many citizens have spent years studying the details of lawless vehicles, written on this issue and even sent pictures of fake vehicles to the highest officials of the Sindh Police. The police will, however, not move an inch as they are trained only to fight fires and not to take pro-active measures to prevent crime. Another reason could be that the law enforcers themselves are also often the worst offenders. . The Sindh government and the Sindh police have not bothered to register a large percentage of their own vehicles.

It is sad that Pakistan will keep on suffering its daily quota of Orlandos unless the state asks takes some simple but stern measures that have long been pending. The state should ask citizens to surrender all weapons, do away with all government vehicles, implementing a nation-wide standard registration number plate system instead and create an easily searchable national database for all vehicles in Pakistan.