The issue of fake arms licenses continues to puzzle the federal government after the passage of over two years, as it directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Monday to collect data about the total number of arms licences (prohibited bore and non-prohibited bore) issued by the Ministry of Interior in the last 10 years, from 2000 onwards, to ascertain the genuineness of the licences.
The Interior ministry has been struggling to produce the reconciled accounts worth Rs 515 million, it collected as fee for arms licences during April 2008 to June 2009, despite repeated directions from the Auditor General of Pakistan.
It issued 88,838 licences during the said period, but a considerable number of licences were issued without depositing fees in the national treasury and were later declared fake.
According to Interior Ministry sources, a special team of ministry officials was constituted following the development to scrutinise the record of issuance of arms licences, which was yet to submit its report despite the passage of over two years. He said the FIA has been now been engaged to sort out the issue.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik chaired a high-level meeting at the Ministry of Interior which was attended by the interior secretary, NADRA chairman, Immigration and Passports director general and Islamabad inspector general of police.
According to a press release, FIA will conduct inquiry based on the record of National Bank of Pakistan, which was authorised to collect challans and fee deposits.
NADRA will revalidate all arms licenses issued by the Ministry of Interior as well as the provincial governments with immediate effect.
The interior minister also directed the Printing Corporation of Pakistan to provide complete record of total number of copies of arms licences printed and issued to federal and provincial governments from 1947 onwards.
It was decided to try fake arms licence holders under section 420 of the PPC and other fraud and cheating related laws.
The press release said Rs 1,100 for PB and Rs 600 for NPB will be charged as revalidation charges of arms licenses. All applications for issuance of arms licenses will be received at all local NADRA offices who shall issue arms licenses from the same counter. Minister for Interior will inaugurate the distribution of arms licences at NADRA’s Islamabad office on September 22.
NADRA has been instructed to computerise employee’s record of ICT Police. The interior minister also instructed the ministry officials to approach the Establishment Division for computerisation of all federal government employees’ data through NADRA.
It was also decided in the meeting that foreigner’s registration, their entry and exit, should be consolidated in the national database by NADRA. For the purpose, NADRA will develop a special software.
It was also decided that foreigners shall get exit certificates from local police authorities, otherwise, they could be stopped from leaving the country.