Recovery of Stolen Cars in Pakistan

This would have been useful information for me to know beforehand. If any of you reading have any information about who decided to go for a joyride in our car, please contact me immediately. Since the car was taken from where I work and dropped off where I live, it must be someone who knows us. It seems that nothing of value was stolen from the car, so that means it was done for "fun" although this week has not been any fun for me, my friends, or my family.

Here are the steps you normally take if your car is stolen in Pakistan:

• Call the police
• File an FIR (report)
• Police will allegedly be searching for the car
  
• Continue calling the police for updates

The police themselves told me that cars may be recovered after 2 or 3 months time. Recovery rate is likely less than 50%. An army source told me that the police do not really have the capabilities to search the country for the car. They will supposedly have all road check points supplied with information about missing cars.

If your car is found, by the police, this is what normally happens:

• Police will take your car into custody
• You may or may not be notified that it has been found
• If you are notified, now you must try to clear the FIR
  
• You must go back and forth between your local police station and the court waiting hours upon hours for this and that official to give you official looking stamps. This took my friends 8 hours on the first day and 5 more hours on the following day
• You will pay 1500 rupees to a case agent at the court for filing the FIR clearance case
• You will pay 3000 rupees to a solicitor to represent your case
  
• At the end of the stamping process, you must find a guarantor to vouch for you
• The guarantor must appear in court and must be the registered owner of a car himself
• Then you must give a $5000 deposit (3 lakh rupees) to the court for one month. You must arrange the money as soon as possible
• The guarantor undertaking paper costs 150 rupees
• The court assurance demand bond note for the 3 lakh rupees costs 5700 rupees
• The court reader costs 200 rupees
  
• After one month, supposedly the money will be returned to you
• You are not allowed to sell the car for 2 months time
  
• If the car has been in police custody, likely 'only half of it will come back', even if the police found it in perfect condition
• Who knows what is next, because none of these steps are told to you until you complete the previous one. Just when you think it's about to end it gets worse and worse.
• It's possible that after going to the police station to get the FIR cleared you may have to start another court case to get your car back. This will inevitably take more money and more time.
  

To the joyriders:

Do you think that is just "sherarat"? Do you think this is enjoyable? Even if nothing physical was stolen from the car, don't you see that you have still stolen from us? You have stolen our time, our money, and our peace of mind. You have even stolen my vacation which I planned to take this week. You should be happy that Hazrat-Isa-al Masih teaches to 'bless your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,' but also know that God is a God of perfect justice and He will judge those who have persecuted his servants. This little prank is certainly not funny.

To anyone owning a car in Pakistan:

• get a steering lock (875 rupees)
  
• never let your keys out of your sight
• get a security system (5700 rupees + 700 rupees installation)
  
• don't report your car stolen to the police, if you do you now know what to expect