The capital city police officer must not pass orders which result in harassment of the public, Additional District and Sessions Judge Malik Tariq Mehmood Zargham observed on Saturday.
The judge was hearing a petition asking that the CCPO’s orders for the seizure of motorbikes be declared illegal.
The judge again sought comments from senior police officials by March 16. He had sought a police response to the petition on Saturday, but one was not submitted.
The petitioner, Chaudhry Shahid Nawab Cheema, has submitted that the CCPO’s orders are illegal and are being used to harass citizens.
The CCPO had issued an order instructing police officials to seize motorbikes and cars left unattended in non-parking areas or those without number plates or damaged number plates, under Article 134 of the Police Order of 2002, he said.
The article required police officials to submit a report on each vehicle seized to the area magistrate, but they were not doing so, the petitioner submitted.
He said that issuing tickets to motorbikes and cars without number plates or with damaged plates was the responsibility of the Excise and Taxation Department, not of the police.
He said that the CCPO’s orders should be declared illegal.
‘30,000 bikes returned’
Addressing a press conference on Saturday, APP reports, CCPO Amjad Javed Saleemi said that the police had seized 40,000 motorbikes without number plates and ‘applied for’ plates.
He said that 30,000 of these motorcycles had been returned after their owners produced the required documentation.
He said that the police had recovered nine stolen vehicles since Thursday, after setting up 11 checkpoints at the city’s exits.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 10th, 2013.