'Government fails to protect rights of automobile buyers'

Government failed to protect the rights of buyers of automobiles and they are paying interest/mark-up on the loan advanced for the purchase of a car jeep or truck without getting the vehicles.
Government should ensure delivery of vehicles within a month or payment of interest/mark-up by car manufacturers till the delivery of the vehicle, said Shahid Aziz one of the victims of late delivery.
He said that unchecked authorised dealers and car manufacturers in the City have held up people's millions of rupees after receiving advance money, while the people after depositing banks' leasing finance in their accounts have no option except to wait for months and years.
Another victim Tauqueer Bukhari said that the commercial banks' attractive car financing scheme does not ensure the applicants to deliver vehicles in three months and the customers pay instalments without getting their vehicles, observed car leasing victims.
The victims demanded the government should give special powers to the FIA banking circle to keep a tight check on car dealers, who are exploiting the public in the name of car financing and defaming the scheme.
The customers' fate completely falls at the hands of dealers' mafia after depositing advance cash to the bank and submitting the purchase order. The unchecked corruption of registered corporate entities or dealers has made the car financing scheme unyielding and not profitable, they added.
Complaints of same nature have also been received from various parts of Bahawalpur and Dera Ghazi Khan divisions and people are facing dealers' exploitation. A senior official of the Punjab government department told this scribe that a large number of high ranking officials were suffering from dealers' exploitation besides hundreds of people from various walks of life.
The authorised dealers and manufacturers, who are bound to deliver cars in three months, have completely failed in honouring their commitments. A large number of applicants have complained that the dealers have charged Rs 10,000 unofficially from them in the name of documentation process, while they are paying instalments to the banks against the product that will be delivered to them after months.
An applicant, Saeeda Fatima Mughal, said that she had submitted her purchase order of Suzuki Mehran VX CNG on January 20, 2006 and was promised the delivery on March 1. "Three months have elapsed after even the due date but the car has not been delivered to me, while I am paying the instalments including lease mark-up and insurance money for the product which I have not used," she added.