The Ministry of Interior Tuesday constituted four committees to fine-tune the upcoming Exit Control List (ECL), regulate security companies, grant permission for bullet proof vehicles and issue new arms licenses. An official from the Ministry of Interior said that the decision to form four different committees each headed by a senior official with the rank of additional secretary to finalise the policies was taken in a meeting, presided over by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan.
The meeting decided that these committees would present their proposals within seven days to the Interior Minister, he said. Secretary Ministry of Interior Shahid Khan and officials of National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA), National Database Registration Authority (NADRA) and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration attended the meeting.
Chaudhry Nisar said a few weeks ago that the Ministry of Interior would soon announce the new policies regarding entry of any person's name in ECL, issuance of new arms licenses, keeping bullet proof vehicles and regulating security companies in the country. "The existing ECL policy has many flaws due to which the government has decided to introduce new ECL policy to assist people," he maintained.
According to the official, the Interior Minister speaking at the meeting said that in the past ECL policy was misused for personal gains and official responsible for the job placed or removed the name of any person from ECL on his sole discretion. The Interior Minister ordered the officials concerned to prepare an appropriate and transparent system for putting any name on ECL in future. Nisar said clear parameters should be chalked out for recommending entry of any person's name in the ECL, he said.
He said the Interior Minister also advised the concerned officials to form an assessment committee within the Ministry of Interior for scrutinising the applications for bullet-proof vehicles. The Interior Minister said that only those persons would be given NoC to use the bullet-proof vehicles who are regular taxpayers and have genuine security concerns. The Interior Minister further suggested that there should be a centralised office at the federal level to maintain record of all the bullet-proof vehicles and the record should be instantly updated in case of change in ownership. The meeting was informed that a large number of illegal companies are involved in retrofitting bullet-proof vehicles, the official said.
About regulating security companies providing security services to people, the Interior Minster directed there is urgent need to review the services that the security companies are providing to their clients. The minister said that being a license holder it should be obligatory for a security company to have a workforce which has the necessary skills and adequate training to perform the security functions. The minister said that the policy should also focus on making it mandatory for the security companies to look after welfare of their employees and their families in case an employee is injured or loses his life while performing his duties.
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