PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on Friday instructed Home and Tribal Affairs Department to make the mechanism for the issuance of computerised arms licence simpler.
While presiding over a meeting regarding the digitalisation of arms licencing held at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat in Peshawar, Mahmood Khan directed the officials concerned to upgrade old and manually made arms licences.
The meeting was attended by Special Assistant on Information Technology Kamran Bangash along with the home secretary, tribal affairs and other administrative officers.
The chief minister also directed to functionalise computerised arms licencing in both districts of Kohistan, Torghar, Battagram, Tank and the newly-merged tribal districts of the province.
The meeting was briefed about the need and importance of digitisation of arms licencing. The meeting was briefed that digitisation of arms licence was kicked off in 2012 and completed in March 2018. So far, more than two lac computerised arms licences have been issued under this initiative.
The KP CM was told that a computerised arms licence has security and information related features which are also helpful for law enforcement agencies. The meeting was further informed that computerised arms licences could be verified both online and offline through scanning the barcode.
The chief minister was told that in the whole process from applying till issuance of the licence, applicants are kept informed through text messages.
Even the fee could also be paid through online means, they added.
The chief minister was also told that through the issuance of two hundred thousand licences, a revenue of rupees six hundred million was generated which is almost double as compare to the previous four years.
CM Mahmood Khan instructed the quarters concerned to upgrade the old arms licences for which human and financial resources would be provided to accomplish the task of upgrading more than 2.5 million arms licences.
CM Mahmood Khan assured the meeting of his full support and directed the special assistant on IT to take it up as a joint venture with the Home Department.
The chief minister also directed to extend this computerised licencing to dealers and manufacturers and to keep track record of the sale and purchase of arms across the province.