The National Assembly on Monday approved 11 demands for grants of Rs 73,185,425,000 for the Interior Division and its attached departments, rejecting all cut motion presented by the opposition.
Minister for Science and Technology Zahid Hamid presented the demands in the House on behalf of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar as the opposition members submitted over 100 cut motions.
Opening the debate on the cut motions, MQM’s Iqbal Muhammad Khan said terrorists had virtually crippled the country’s economic hub, Karachi.
He criticised the law enforcement agencies for their failure to eradicate terrorism and apprehending the culprits involved in target killings in the city. Khan said a de-weaponisation drive should be started in the entire country.
MNA Iqbal Ahmad criticised the performance of the Passport Department and said thousands of people could not perform umra due to a delay in the issuance of their passports.
Sheikh Rashid said a member of the provincial assembly was targetted along with his son but no arrest had been made so far.
He said no one was safe in mosques and churches anymore, adding that around 12 people had been abducted in Rawalpindi in the last few weeks.
Sher Akbar Khan said if the law and order was a provincial subject why had the government not allocated the required funds to the provinces. He said the Interior Ministry should curb corruption in its own departments first.
PTI’s Dr Shireen Mazari said protection of citizens of the country was the government’s responsibility but it had miserably failed in the task.
“The people who are killed in drone attacks are Pakistanis and it is the responsibility of the Interior Ministry to give details of the names of these innocent people who are killed in such strikes. Or at least the media should be given access to these areas to report the casualties,” she added.
She said the government should immediately make a counter-terrorism policy to help rid the country of terrorism.
Shah Jahan Baloch said the Interior Ministry must ensure the security of all citizens while Sahibzada Mohammad Yaqoob said the law and order in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Malakand division was not satisfactory and urged the government to set up counters for females at all passport offices.
MNA Nafeesa Inayatullah also urged the government to make a counter-terrorism policy and stressed the need for promoting technical training of law enforcement agencies to improve their performance.
Mehreen Razzaq Bhutto said law and order was the most pressing issue of the country. She said the government should launch an operation to clear off illegal weapons, adding that the government should monitor all those institutions which were promoting sectarian violence in the country.
Winding up the debate on the Interior Division budget allocations, Zahid Hamid said the government in collaboration with all stakeholders would come up with a comprehensive counter-terrorism policy to overcome terrorism.
He said weapon licences would be verified and no new licences would be issued until a comprehensive policy was in place.
Hamid said the passport offices had been facing a crisis due to an acute shortage of lamination papers. He said people had to suffer as there had been a backlog of 0.8 million passports.
He said the system had now been streamlined and a considerable improvement had been witnessed and about 20,000 passports were being issued daily.
He said the government would try to resolve the issue of missing persons as soon as possible, adding that trafficking and production of narcotic drugs would also be eradicated.
