LAHORE: Journalist Saima Nawaz has thanked the Lahore Police and the Punjab Safe Cities Authority after her stolen car was recovered undamaged, days after it was taken from outside the gate of the Lahore Press Club.
The Suzuki Mehran was tracked by Safe City cameras across several districts, even though the thieves had replaced its original number plate with a fake one. Jhelum police stopped the vehicle using real-time tracking data shared by the authority.
“I’m very thankful to the Lahore Police and the Safe City Authority for recovering my beloved car,” Saima Nawaz, a former office-bearer of the Lahore Press Club, told The Lahore Times.
She said the car’s condition was still intact. She demanded strict punishment for those involved so that it serves as a lesson to others, and urged that security outside the Press Club be improved to prevent similar incidents.
SSP Operations Lahore Abdullah Ahmed announced the recovery at a press conference, accompanied by SP Operations of the Safe City Authority Zulfiqar Khan.
Police said the car was blacklisted in the Safe City system as soon as the theft was reported on the 15 emergency helpline. A blacklisted vehicle is flagged whenever the network’s cameras detect it on the road.
The Safe City virtual patrolling team then followed the car’s movements. According to officials, the suspects had fitted a fake number plate to hide the vehicle’s identity, but cameras still identified the car in Gujrat.
Real-time information was shared immediately with the operations commander and Smart Safe City Jhelum. Acting on that data, Jhelum police intercepted the car. Police said further legal proceedings are under way.
Earlier reported the theft on September 24. Saima Nawaz had parked outside the Press Club at 7pm and found the car missing when she returned at 8:10pm.
CCTV footage showed a suspect in shalwar kameez getting off a motorcycle, unlocking the car and driving away within moments. The suspects wore helmets that hid their faces. Saima Nawaz later filed an application at the local police station seeking legal action.
The theft unsettled the journalist community because it happened during busy evening hours at one of Lahore’s most crowded public venues, where press conferences and events are held almost every day.
The recovery shows how the Safe City network can follow a stolen vehicle well beyond city limits, even after its plate has been changed. It does not, however, answer the question Saima Nawaz raised: how thieves were able to take a car from the club’s gate in the first place.
Journalists’ groups have long called for more police patrols and better surveillance around press clubs and media offices, where large numbers of people gather daily.
The case comes amid mixed crime figures in the city. Officials recently said commercial vehicle thefts in Lahore fell 48% over seven months, yet overall theft remains high, with 39,624 theft cases recorded in eight months. Last month, a motorcycle was stolen from outside a police station gate in the city.
Journalists are expected to follow whether police identify and arrest the motorcycle riders seen in the CCTV footage, and whether the case leads to a wider vehicle-lifting network operating between Lahore and northern Punjab.
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