‘I had to skip work again’: Karachiites struggle with Ajrak number plates process

KARACHI: Muhammad Jamal bought his Alto in 2022 through a bank loan, expecting the excitement of car ownership to be matched with smooth formalities. But three years later, he still doesn’t have an Excise-issued number plate.

“I don’t even know if the plate will be delivered to me or to the bank,” said Jamal, frustrated. With his original documents locked with the bank until the loan matures, and the Excise office requiring those same papers to issue the plate, Jamal finds himself at a bureaucratic dead end.

He’s not alone.

Across Karachi, from business owners to delivery riders, ordinary citizens are caught in the confusion and delay caused by the Sindh government’s drive to replace old number plates with new, Ajrak-themed ones. While officials argue the move is part of a broader Safe City initiative, people say the process has been anything but safe or smooth.

Here’s how to apply for new Ajrak design number plates online

Umair Alam, an entrepreneur, also took his car out of the showroom in 2022 and registered it soon after. Since then, he’s heard little more than what he called “broken promises”.

“They told me the number plate would come by April 2025. Then in May, I followed up, and now they’re saying July,” he told Business Recorder. Alam paid for registration once, but when the government introduced the Ajrak plates mid-process, he was told to pay again.

Abid Hussain, a delivery boy who had come to the Excise office to apply for a number plate, said that was his second visit to the office.

“I had to skip work again, but I couldn’t apply today either due to heavy rush,” he lamented.

On the other hand, Muhammad Qaiser, a private employee, told Business Recorder that he had preferred to apply online.

“However, after applying online, I neither received a payment confirmation SMS nor any information about when the number plate will be delivered,” he said.

Qaiser said the tracking ID was only showing whether the plate had been printed or delivered. “It does not specify when it will actually be received.”

He added that there was no home delivery option available for online payments.

“At one point, I saw a courier option, but when I clicked it, it turned out to be invalid.”

Two offices for a population of over 20 million

Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, has a population of around 20.3 million as per Census 2023. Yet, currently there are only two Excise offices - one at Hassan Square and the other in Clifton - to offer services related to vehicles registration and new number plates.

Number plates with Ajrak design: only Excise-issued plates are valid, says minister

When the scribe visited one of the two offices, several people were seen complaining about the shortage of counters and staff. They said establishing only two registration offices for such a large city was “incomprehensible” and imposing a strict deadline on top of it was “irrational”.

The citizens called for an increase in the number of registration offices and an extension of the August 14 deadline.

Agents were also seen taking advantage of people’s plight outside the Excise Office.

The scribe, not disclosing the identity, asked an agent standing outside the office how much he would charge to get the number plate work done. The agent responded that it would cost Rs10,000 for a car and Rs7,000 for a bike, with a delivery time of one to one and a half months.

Meanwhile, not far from Excise offices, local shops continued to make duplicate number plates despite Sindh Excise and Taxation minister Mukesh Kumar Chawla’s warning that only Excise offices could issue the new Ajrak design number plates and those issued by outside agents or shops would not be considered valid.

A local craftsman who makes duplicate number plates told Business Recorder that most of his customers were students or delivery riders. According to the craftsman, people believe that police enforcement is limited to major roads, while students mostly ride their bikes in neighborhoods, so they prefer duplicate plates.

He also mentioned that a duplicate plate for a bike costs around Rs500 to Rs600, whereas the official excise plate costs nearly Rs2,000. “Due to limited financial resources and time, riders opt for duplicate plates.”

Why new Ajrak design number plates?

Earlier this month, Excise minister Chawla, explaining why Ajrak number plates were important, said the Safe City Project could not succeed until the security-enhanced number plates issued by the government were fully implemented.

Talking to Business Recorder then, the minister ruled out the use of old or the number plate manufactured in open market/shops.

Sindh extends deadline for Ajrak number plates until August 14

Emphasising the use of Ajrak number plates, the minister described the features of the number plate adding that the plates included threads in the background, 3D holograms, and barcodes. The Safe City cameras would also be able to read the plate number in night, he added.

Chawla stated that the excise department had launched three different colored number plates: white plates for private vehicles and bikes, yellow plates for commercial vehicles, and green plates for government vehicles. He mentioned that the fee for vehicle number plates—whether government or commercial—was set at Rs2,450, and Rs1,850 for two wheelers.