Driving licenses issued to overseas Pakistanis have no record

PESHAWAR: A number of driving licenses issued by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Transport Department to overseas Pakistanis were found to be having no record, a source said.

The provincial government authorities are angry over officials of the Transport Department after an international scandal of issuing fake driving licenses to overseas Pakistanis was unearthed recently.

The KP government authorities have directed the top bosses of the Transport Department to properly probe the issue and recommend due punishments to all those officials and private agents involved that have earned a bad name for the province.

The Pakistan High Commission in Canberra, Australia, as well as the authorities in Hong Kong have sent letters for verification of driving licenses that were issued to many overseas Pakistanis in the last couple of years.

“Dozens of these licenses sent for verification had no record. There are a large number of other such licenses issued to overseas Pakistanis through fraud,” it was learnt. As many employees were hand in glove with touts in this millions of rupees scandal, these licenses could be verified online as original.

A source said an inquiry has been ordered into the scam after letters by the embassies. The embassy officials were surprised as to why such a large number of people from other provinces are being issued licenses from Peshawar, Nowshera and some other cities of KP and why they didn’t get it from their respective districts.

The inquiry will also check licenses issued overseas in other countries as there could be many other countries where fake licenses are issued by the employees of the department without following the required procedure.

Reports said that some employees and touts would be exposed during the inquiry who have made millions from the illegal business going on since long under the nose of the government and senior officials.

There are a number of complaints against the officials of the department responsible for issuing different categories of licenses that also need to be probed.