ISLAMABAD – The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was informed on Monday that the Ministry of Interior had traced 1014 arms licence applications that had parliamentarians’ forged signatures.
The PAC, which met with Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan in the chair, directed the Ministry of Interior to make a report to the committee on the cancellation of arms licences issued on forged signatures, in three months. Interior Secretary Qamar Zaman Chaudhry informed the committee that his ministry had traced 1,014 arms licence applications that had forged signatures. He said his ministry had imposed a ban on new licences.
“All licenses which might be issued in future will be sent to NADRA for proper verification to make the system more secure,” the secretary said, adding that a summary of a new arms policy had been sent to Prime Minister’s Secretariat, under which new licences would be issued from the Prime Minister’s Secretariat.
Pakistan Today found out that such licences are made by ‘insiders’ in the issuing office, where clerks keep an eye out for MPs who haven’t exhausted their quota of arms licences. So if an MP has a quota of say 10 licences and has used just three, a clerk would forge the MP’s signature onto the remaining 7 and make a considerable sum of money, without the MP ever knowing, if that’s possible!
Nisar called the former Rangers DG “very controversial” and claimed that he was “mainly used for political purposes”. He said the Rangers’ role was always under-emphasized and it should be given credit. About misappropriation by Rangers, he said the PAC wanted financial rules in every government department.
He also asked the Interior secretary about action taken by Rangers in Karachi and the denial of this by both the federal and Sindh governments. The secretary informed the committee that the Rangers were given police powers in Karachi keeping in view the law and order situation. He said that the Sindh Home Department had granted these powers to the Rangers.
