Punjab's New Vehicle Scrapping Law: What It Means for Older Cars

If you own an older car in Punjab — or you're thinking about buying one — a new provincial law is worth understanding before you make any decisions based on rumors alone.

What Actually Happened

The Punjab Governor, Sardar Saleem Haider Khan, promulgated the Provincial Motor Vehicles (Third Amendment) Ordinance 2026 with immediate effect — using the ordinance route because the Punjab Assembly wasn't in session at the time, per ProPakistani and Dawn. The ordinance formally defines what counts as an "end-of-life vehicle" and sets up a framework for scrapping them.

What Actually Qualifies as "End-of-Life"

This is the part worth reading carefully, since headlines can make it sound broader than what's actually written. Per reporting, a vehicle qualifies as end-of-life if any of these apply:

1. Its registration has expired or been cancelled
2. It fails mandatory fitness or emission tests and cannot obtain the required certificates
3. It's been severely damaged — by fire, natural disaster, an accident, or similar — and the owner declares it as scrap

Notice what's not on that list: simply being old isn't, by itself, one of the three defined triggers in the ordinance as reported. Age comes into the picture through a separate, broader plan (below), not as an automatic disqualifier under this specific legal definition.

The Bigger Plan: Phasing Out Vehicles Over 20 Years Old

Separately, and reported alongside the ordinance, Punjab is preparing a broader plan to gradually phase out vehicles older than 20 years, framed explicitly as part of the fight against smog and air pollution. Officials have been clear on one point: there is no overnight ban — the detailed rules, including exact age thresholds, testing procedures, and what qualifies as an authorized scrapping center, are still to be issued.

What's Reportedly Being Offered in Exchange

For owners who do end up surrendering an old vehicle, reporting mentions a package of incentives under discussion: discounts on electric vehicles, subsidised financing, lease-to-own schemes, and specific support for low-income households. None of this is finalized yet — treat it as the direction of travel, not a locked-in program.

What This Means Right Now

• If your registration is current and your car passes fitness/emission checks, nothing in this ordinance affects you today.
• If you're driving on expired registration, or you know your car would struggle to pass an emissions test, this is a good moment to get that sorted — not because of an immediate crackdown, but because the direction of policy is clearly toward tighter enforcement, not looser.
• If you're buying an older car, ask about registration status and consider whether it would realistically pass an emissions/fitness test — increasingly relevant given where this policy is heading, even though it's not a legal requirement to ask today.

We'll update this once the detailed rules — age limits, testing procedures, scrapping center rules — are actually published.