Detained in foreign prisons: foreign ministry told to expedite cases of Pakistanis

The Senate standing committee on Interior Wednesday directed the Foreign Ministry to pursue on fast track the cases of Pakistanis detained in foreign prisons. The committee met here on Wednesday with Senator Muhammad Talha Mahmood in the chair. Officials of the Foreign Ministry informed the committee that 1675 Pakistanis are in Saudi jails only.
The committee rejected the policy of arms licences issuance, saying that it has flaws and lacks objectivity. There is neither clarity nor convenience for the licence-seekers in the policy, chairman committee opined. The ministry of interior had no answer to the query as the issuance of arms' licences has been devolved to the provinces after passage of 18th constitutional amendment, then what the interior ministry has to do with the matter. The body observed that the policy has no clarity. It observed that one can retain more than one weapons on a single licence number. "How you would maintain record of ammunition on a computerised card," the committee asked. The officials concerned admitted grey areas in the policy and said they are further working on the subject.
The additional secretary of the ministry of interior said that concerns of the members would be addressed in the policy in-the-making for issuance of arms licences.
The ministry told the committee that it had no manual record of the arms licences issued since 1947, adding that revalidation process would help the authorities maintain the computerised record of the arms licences. It further told the committee that the incumbent government during the last three-year issued 40,813 licences of prohibited bore and 50,668 licences of non-prohibited bore. It further said that Prime Minster Yousuf Raza Gilani also issued licences of prohibited bore during ban.
Committee member, Syeda Sughra Imam observed that arms policy lacks objective. "Is regularisation of arms is the purpose of the policy," she asked the interior ministry. Nadra told the committee that so far they have received 10,9000 applications for revalidation of arms licences out of which over 14,000 applicants have been issued computerised arms licences. When asked how these licences were verified, Nadra had no answer, but said they are issuing computerised licences against the manual licence books. Later, it transpired from the discussion that Nadra was issuing computerised licences without any approval from the NCMC. So much so the interior ministry informed the committee that verification cell of the NCMC was yet to be activated.
The members also raised question that how the interior ministry could revalidate arms liccences of the residents of provinces as the issue is subject of provinces. Chief Commissioner ICT, Tari Pirzada said that if a licence-holder wanted to change his weapon he must have to approach to the issuing authorities first and then come to Nadra which would complicate the process and cause inconvenience for them.
He said unless there is licence book, these issues would continue to crop up. He rejected the idea of computerised arms licence on which he said no entry can be made by the authorities as change of weapon and release of ammunition. Gulshan Saeed was of the view that no new licence should be issued to any body as a large number of weapons in the country would lead to law and order situation and yield nothing fruitful.