Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao on Wednesday said a joint investigation team by the federal and provincial governments was being constituted to probe into the incident of alleged recovery of some explosive material from an intelligence official in Peshawar.
"The incident is result of misunderstanding," Sherpao said this at a press conference here. He said the NWFP chief minister should not have reacted in this fashion and that the stance of Intelligence Bureau be considered in this respect. "Our intelligence agencies have done remarkably well in the fight against terror and have set precedents," the minister said.
He called upon the chief minister to avoid taking political benefits out of the incident and concentrate more on improving law and order situation in the province. "I think NWFP government has over-reacted to the incident," he added. The minister informed that Economic Co-ordination Committee had approved a project worth Rs 3.56 billion for machine-readable passports.
Under the project commenced on December 1 this year, he said that upto 16 new passport offices, in addition to 28 already existing, would be established throughout the country by November 2010. He said out of the new passport offices in Punjab, two in Sindh, five in NWFP, three in Balochistan and one each in AJK and Northern Areas would be established.
He said the Ministry of Interior, National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) and Immigration Directorate had made joint efforts for the project. The minister said like machine-readable passport, efforts were underway to issue machine-readable visa. Also present on the occasion were Secretary Interior Syed Kamal Shah, Additional Secretary Qamar Zaman Chaudhry, DG Passport and Immigration.