The Pakistan government has finally allowed Indian diplomats posted in Islamabad to use ordinary number plates on their cars, instead of the red-coloured diplomatic registration numbers, ignoring opposition from intelligence agencies who argued that the new practice could become a serious security threat.
Foreign office sources in Islamabad said the permission was granted in response to a longstanding Indian demand for ordinary registration plates for their vehicles because they did not want to be conspicuous during their movements. But the Pakistan foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit downplayed the permission granted to Indian diplomats saying that all diplomatic missions in Islamabad are being provided with new number plates under a new arrangement.
The fact, however, remains that the Pakistan government was not ready to buy the same argument from Indian diplomats in the last few years. Scores of western diplomats in Islamabad were using local numbers without any authority aimed at camouflaging their identity because of the deteriorating law and order situation.
The registration numbers being used by them were mostly not registered with the authorities concerned in Islamabad — something that the local authorities had been routinely raising with the mission.
As a matter of fact, the Pakistan government had permitted them, in principle, to use ordinary number plates, insisting that the numbers would be provided by the local registration authority.
However, many diplomatic missions did not avail the government offer and started using number plates of their choice, in violation of the country’s laws.
Security agencies have noted through a study with the help of Motorway Police that the inter-city movement of diplomats’ vehicles increased significantly after the unauthorised use of local registration numbers and that, too, without intimating the departments concerned. However, the same facility was being denied to Indian diplomats stationed in the federal capital. But it has finally been granted.
