Interior Minister Rehman Malik on Friday said the government has decided to deweaponize the country especially purging Karachi of illegal weapons in different phases. "The government has taken this decision on the demands of all political parties including Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).
"Target killings in Karachi has been controlled while there are some small groups involved in various street crimes and Batha Mafia is plundering people. The local police of Karachi is responsible for controlling the crimes," the Minister said while winding up debate on the law and order situation in Karachi and Quetta in the National Assembly.
Malik raised some pictures of terrorists in his hand to show the Speaker and said that there was conspiracy to split Pakistan. "Madam Speaker, I request you to hold an in-camera session of the parliament. In this session, I will give detailed briefing and tell the names of those countries which are interfering in Balochistan and who are financing Taliban. We know who is providing financial support to some banned organisations in Quetta which have links with Taliban." The minister urged all the political parties to join hands and support the government to foil conspiracies being hatched to destabilize the country.
He said that local police was responsible to maintain law and order and to control street crime and combat Batha Mafia in Karachi. The minister said a programme has been launched to computerise all the licenses issued by the Interior Ministry. He said seven-year imprisonment would be awarded, besides registering cases under Anti Terrorist Act for possessing illegal weapon. The task has been assigned to National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) to regularise all the licenses by computerising the record, he said and added the last date was extended to September 30 to facilitate people.
The minister said that the accused of terrorism were freed by the courts due to lack of evidence and flexibility in the law. To remove these discrepancies, the government had submitted a bill in the Senate. He said that despite the passage of one-and-half year the Senate had not passed the bill. He said if there was any problem it should be discussed in the National Assembly.
On this, the Speaker said that it was the prerogative of the government to withdraw the Bill from the Senate and present it in the National Assembly for speedy passage. The minister also proposed constitute a Parliamentary Committee of all the political parties to find a long-lasting solution to the law and order situation in Karachi. He said the committee should go to Karachi for investigation of the causes of law and order in the metropolitan.
He said the proposed committee would be briefed on the entire operation of drug and land mafia and local criminals in Karachi and all the facts would be placed before them. "It is the responsibility of the provincial government to maintain law and order situation in the provinces. The Federation can only give them policy guidelines and logistic support," he added.
The minister urged Ulema and other people to condemn such incidents as killing of an innocent person was tantamount to killing the whole humanity. The minister said that as many as 154 target killers had been arrested during last two years, besides submitting challan of 115 accused in the courts.
He said that the Anti-Terrorist Wing of FIA was also shifted to Karachi to help check target killings effectively while SUPARCO was also providing images of troubled areas besides surveillance was being done through helicopters. About Federal Capital, the Minister said that 11 accused were arrested from slum areas of the Capital who were also planning attack on President Asif Ali Zardari.