ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Monday said that terrorists are trying to divide the nation, and those who took the law into own hands in Lahore are facilitating terrorist agenda. Speaking before the National Standing Committee on Interior and Narcotics Control, the Interior Minister said action would be taken against those who took the law into own hands after the twin blasts in Lahore on Sunday.
Nisar said terrorists are now targeting soft targets like mosques, churches and schools; therefore, we need to demonstrate unity against them to fail their nefarious designs instead of staging protests. "Those who took the law into their own hands pursued the agenda of terrorists," he said.
In response to Muttahida Qaumi Movement's (MQM) member of the standing committee Asif Husnain's demand for the formation of a commission to investigate the raid on Nine-Zero, MQM headquarter, and the conduct of Sindh Rangers; the Interior Minister said that he would personally investigate the matter as insult of any respectable person is unacceptable.
He said the operation is not meant to sideline any political group as it was launched after a consensus of all political parties, including MQM. "A criminal is criminal, whether he belongs to PML-N or MQM," he said, adding that the government will listen to MQM for its reservations but elimination of criminals is necessary. Earlier, briefing the committee about the performance of the Ministry of Interior, he said the files of sensitive cases were found missing from the interior ministry when he took over. He added that efforts are being made to computerise all the records but that is not immediately possible. "Now he has directed NADRA and Ministry of Information Technology to computerise the record of Interior Ministry," he said.
He said that not a single administrative order was issued for placing anybody on Exit Control List (ECL) except those cases which were referred by NAB, FIA, higher judiciary or provincial governments. The Minister said that hundreds of security personnel deployed with non-entitled persons are doing household duties with VIPs have been withdrawn and deployed on security duties. No case was referred by Ministry of Interior to any intelligence agency, including ISI and IB, for putting the name of any politician or businessmen or common citizens on the wire tapping list on political or personal grounds, he maintained.
He said a complete end to 'VIP culture' and interference in the matters of ICT police has been ensured. In the first year starting from June 2013 Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) issued fine tickets to 1262 VIPs including Ministers, MNAs, Senators, judges, Diplomats, senior armed forces and civil administration officer for various traffic violations while during the corresponding period of the previous government the ITP issued only seven tickets to VIPs.
The Interior Minister said a complete ban was imposed on issuance of all new prohibited and non-prohibited bore licenses to verify and revalidate 67,740 arms licenses issued during 2008-2013. The Ministry of interior has imposed a complete ban on the registration of new private security companies as there is no proper system of verification and registration of such companies, which ensures the efficacy of these companies and no new security company has been registered as they do not have requisite number of arms and expertise, he said.
He said that a large number of illegal companies are involved in retrofitting of bullet proof vehicles as ban was extended to grant NOCs by the Ministry of Interior; however, an enquiry was launched through FIA which resulted in sealing of numerous illegal retrofitting companies and arrests of their management who were operating on fake NOCs. "The Minister said that Ministry of Interior would soon introduce a methodology for issuance of new arm licenses and registration of security companies.
Nisar said the ministry of Interior has adopted a strong internal accountability mechanism to weed out corrupt elements. Under the transfer of Prisoner Agreement between Pakistan and the UK, three prisoners convicted by the UK courts on charges of murder and drug trafficking were transferred to Pakistan in 2010 and released within days illegally in connivance with Ministry of Interior officials. A prompt enquiry was conducted through FIA and ex-section officer of the Ministry Interior namely Ali Muhammad Malik was arrested along with an officer of the Punjab police. One of the freed prisoners was arrested from within the country while the other two who fled abroad have been intercepted with the help of Interpol and their extradition process is underway, he said. He said that legal proceedings against an ex-section officer (arms) Ministry of Interior Akhtar Ali Hakor were held and he was awarded a 21-year imprisonment for his involvement in the 2006-2007 fake arms licenses scam.
The Minister said that since June 1, 2013 the Immigration and Passport directorate issued around 7 million passports which contributed over Rs 32 billion to the national exchequer. The production capacity which was around 2 million passports per year from 2004-2013 has been increased to around 4 million passports per annum in the last 21 months within the existing resources, he said.
He said that Machine Readable Passport and Visas MRP/MRV system has been installed in five new foreign missions including Beijing, Copenhagen, the Hague, Madrid and Tashkent while installation of MRP and MRV system to be completed at 10 more foreign mission to be functional by April this year. Over 2,000 official and diplomatic passport issued to ineligible people during 2008-2013 were cancelled.
He said that in financial year 2012-2013 Nadra earned a profit of Rs 1.3 billion while in 2013-14 it earned a net profit of Rs 2.9 billion. About revival of National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta), he said shortage of funds and a lack of efficient officers are the major hurdles. Nacta has ensured timely communication of around 4,000 threat alerts and more than 1650 information reports in the past 20 months. He said that NACTA for the first time in the history of the country devised an Internal Security Apparatus (ISA) for co-ordination between the federating units and the armed forces of the country in chalking out of mechanism whereby provinces can depute armed force and civil armed forces in their respective areas according to their needs.
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