Senate Standing Committee on Interior would intervene to settle the issue of shifting foreign missions permanently to diplomatic enclave from the posh areas of the Federal capital.
For this purpose, the committee on Saturday constituted a sub-committee to press the embassies of those countries, which are still stationed outside the diplomatic enclave despite the fact that the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has allotted 56 plots inside of the diplomatic enclave. Only 19 embassies have constructed their buildings so far.
The sub-committee, led by Senator Talha Mehmood, would coordinate with the Foreign Office officials and embassies for shifting them in a bid to reduce the security threats to foreigners as well as inconvenience to the locals. The Senate Standing Committee on Interior met on Saturday, with Senator Talha Mehmood in the chair, also recommended for launching crackdown against the owners of the over 600 houses in the capital, who are using residential buildings for commercial purposes, creating disturbance due to illegal and unethical businesses there.
The meeting deliberated the security threats to the general public as well as to the staff of the diplomatic missions situated outside of the much-guarded diplomatic enclave. The committee pointed out that due to the security lapse outside the diplomatic enclave, these missions could be targeted by terrorists, as was the recent case of Dutch Embassy, causing a number of causalities.
Senator Sadia Abbasi said that due to presence of the United Nations office in F-7 area, the residents of the area were facing serious problems as the law-enforcement agencies were creating problems for the residents. She urged the government to arrange alternate area for those offices, which needed extra-security measures to avoid hurdles for the general public.
CDA Chairman Kamran Lasharri said that CDA had allotted another piece of land adjacent to the old diplomatic enclave for construction of the embassies. But these embassies were not being shifted there due to unknown reasons. The Inspector General of Islamabad informed the meeting that almost 58 offices of diplomatic missions were located outside the enclave, which needed extra security measures whereas the ICT police had shortage of almost 70 percent strength of the required staff.
The Interior Ministry officials informed the meeting that new police force, consisting 10,000 each for Islamabad, Sindh and NWFP, would soon be recruited to overcome the shortage of manpower in the law-enforcement agencies. After the recruitment of these forces, Frontier Constabulary and Rangers would be sent back to the border areas, the officials added.
The Inspector General of Punjab Police also informed the meeting about the measures taken to strength the police force in the province. He said that five police training schools would be established in the province for this purpose. He added that a committee had also been constituted to examine the previous recruitment process in the Punjab police, which would present its report within 15 days.
The Punjab IG said that according to the new policy, no policeman would perform his duty more than eight hours in a day and a special committee had also been established to review perks and privileges of police officials, which would enable them to perform their duties satisfactorily.
Interior Ministry's Additional Secretary Imtiaz Qazi informed the meeting that the ministry had issued NOCs for the purchase of 60 bulletproof cars. Out of which, 50 percent were for diplomats and the remaining for civilians duties, he added.
The meeting was attended by Senator Tahir Hussain Meshedi, Senators Sadia Abbasi, Senator Tahira Lateef, Senator Gulshan Sayeed, Senator Jamal Laghari, Inspector Generals of Punjab and Islamabad, Chief Commissioner of Islamabad and senior officials of Ministry of Interior.
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