Conspiracy smells strong. UK’s intelligence, the source of all this fiasco, is not mentioned anywhere in the subsequent news coverages. It feels like they just put Pakistani Custom and Bulgarian Embassy at loggerheads and then went silent and enjoying the exchange. Basically it was UK’s problem because it is them who said that the car has been stolen from London. In a discreet manner, the problem of a local police station in the UK is being converted into full-blown diplomatic friction between 2 countries, and the one who initiated it is nowhere to be seen.

Colonizer’s old habit of divide and rule apparently hasn’t died yet.

The novel continues.

https://www.pakwheels.com/blog/bulgarian-embassy-reclaims-confiscated-bentley-mulsanne-from-karachi/

Now it has been declared that the Bulgarian embassy is the rightful owner of the car. Too much remains unanswered:

1) Diplomats & embassies get a special red number plate (with white writing) which is custom-exempt. Basically a “legal NCP”. Whether customs issues this plate or foreign ministry? I don’t know, If someone knows, please shed light on it for the education of us readers.

2) Foreign diplomats don’t need to register their vehicle with the provincial excise department. Foreign expats and immigrants definitely do.

3) If the vehicle’s owner was the embassy, why was it registered in the personal name of the ambassador?

4) If the embassy in Islamabad is the owner, and they somehow felt the need to register it with the provincial excise, why did they go ahead to get the Sindh number plate, wouldn’t it be more convenient for them to get an ICT number plate?

5) If the embassy/ambassador sells the vehicle, at that time the assessment of cusomt duty is done and the local/expat non-diplomat buyer has to get it registered in his/her own name, not in the name of the seller. So if the embassy had auctioned the car, why wasn’t it registered in the name of the buyer at the time local number plates were allotted? They write the name of some Jamil Shafi who had bought the car. So why ididn’t Jamil Shafi’s name appear as the owner?

6) Why does the embassy/ambassador of a such a poor country want to keep such an exclusive luxury car? Comparatively the embassies of rich countries like US, UK, Saudia & Qatar maintain a pool having some Land Cruisers, Camrys and at best a Mercedes as their flag car.

7) The tussle belongs to Europe because the car was stolen from Europe and also bought by European country/European person yet it is fate that the Pakistani civil servants are expending their time, energy, effort and Pakistani taxpayers money to make sense of this whole story. Pakistani government should make rules for diplomats & embassies that they can bring cars only from their home country (submit Bill of Lading) or buy a Pakistani assembled vehicle from a local showroom. They can be spared the shenanigans of on-money, long delivery period to exalt their status as a guest, but they still will get a featureless unsafe overpriced car, but then this is what all the Pakistanis go through and if our esteemed guests also get to live the quality of life of us hosts, then let it be, it is just a matter of circumstance.

8) Querying for BRS-279 on Sindh Excise website now turns up a “record Not Found”. Have they cancelled the number plate? Hidden the record? Unclear.

9) Not only this, the previous article says the Bulgarian embassy has had been actively involved in the case (remember the ambassador himself was called back to his home country a long time ago). What interest does the embassy have after the car had long been sold to someone else? This again lets us to wonder whether this is a proxy fight from Europe being fought in Pakistan at the expense of the Pakistani taxpayer.

10) If the vehicle was stolen from the UK, and shipped directly to Pakistan, and bought by the Bulgarian embassy, shouldn’t those 2 countries sort it out on their own?

The news says that the thieved were fined, in fact the car was reported to be stolen from London, so the news should be understood to mean that those people who facilitated the import of that car and then selling it to the unsuspecting buyer have been convicted.
There is no mention of that person who actually picked the lock when the car was standing somewhere in London.

PakWheels Blog has covered it one day later and includes the details of allegations of corruption and misuse of diplomatic privileges by embassy staffs.
https://www.pakwheels.com/blog/london-nahi-jaungi-the-stolen-bentley/

From the photo it can be seen that 3 people are traveling in a very unsafe manner on the repo truck. The car is longer than the bed of the truck, hence the climbing ramps aren’t lifted up. How much road did they damage by dragging their tailgate all along?

And the real question is if the car was present, how come the key wasn’t? The seller sold the car without the key? The buyer bought the car without the key? Someone from the household randomly happened to take the key together with the other car because this fob was also in the same key ring?

“Sindh Excise website which shows engine displacement as horsepower and despite highlighting the issue so many times, the horrendous error persists.”

This is a deliberate error due to illiteracy. They allegedly think a larger engine will produce more power and consume more fuel. In other words, displacement is directly proportional to power, which is true only if the engines are of the same technology. And that is how a new 1.6 Corolla takes less fuel than an old (carburettor) 800 cc Bolan.
Not only in the Sindh excise website, also in the olden times when the website and the internet didn’t exist, they always wrote the engine displacement in place of horse power in the registration book.
And due to believing in this false concept, a low fuel consumption 1800 cc Prius gets taxed more than a fuel guzzling 800 cc carburettor Mehran. Need to work really hard on education first.

And here’s the problem… Everyone and everything in this country wants to work by “waasta” or the “parchi” rule. 🙄

https://i.postimg.cc/T1YbYzs6/305359604-10166320909515153-469407987678683430-n.jpg

registration details updated at the end of article

Pakistanis are quick to self-criticize whereas luxury car stealing in Europe has a centuries-long history which usually end up in Eastern European countries or Russia. In this scenario also it is a non-local in whose name the car is registered and neither did it come out as a fake registration or identity theft case. In fact https://dnanews.com.pk/bulgarian-ambassador-aleksandar-recalled-corruption-charges/ reported on 4th October 2020, just a few days after the May 2020 registration of this BRS-279 vehicle, that the person in whose name this vehicle is has been recalled to his home country to show cause about abuse of diplomatic privileges.
So Europeans happened to steal from Europeans and the car just by chance happened to be in Pakistan, allegedly fraudulently sold to a local buyer?

Usually the Sindh excise gives an FN number plate to foreigners. The format is FN-xxxx.

If you can update the article to include a screenshot of the excise record, it can also be seen that the car is annual token tax defaulter from July 2020 till June 2023 also. These large engine vehicles are seldom stopped by the traffic police or excise police to check the tax payment. Apparently there is no culture of annual tax payment in Sindh, last time I randomly noted a few numbers from cars parked in a street and some of them 3 years, some 7 years, some 14 years and some 17 years tax defaulter and only 1 or 2 responsible citizens whose title was up to date.
Now the tax payment system is online using the 1BILL method of internet banking, ATM or branch banking. https://taxportal.excise.gos.pk/home/quick_pay