Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has directed the Ministry of Interior (MoI) to bring the issue of regulation of arms licences for the automatic weapons before the next meeting of the federal cabinet. An official of the prime minister Office said that a meeting of the federal cabinet has been convened by the prime minister today (Wednesday) and the proposal may be considered by it if all the details are firmed up in the form of summary by the Ministry of Interior.
On Tuesday, a meeting on automatic arms licences was chaired by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi where the secretary interior briefed the prime minister about the overall situation regarding the number of arms licences issued by the federal as well as the provincial governments. He also briefed the meeting on policy framework governing the issuance of arms licences.
The meeting was informed that 19,143 prohibited bore arms licences were issued during the period 2010-2012. During the interim period of 2013, a total of 25,789 licences were issued for the prohibited bore weapons. The meeting was further told that only 410 PB arms licences have been issued so far during the tenure of the present government. Out of these 410 licences, 400 were issued to Wapda while only 10 licences were issued to the individuals.
The meeting was informed that a deadline of December 30, 2017 has been set for revalidation of all licenses after which all non-computerized licenses issued by the Interior Ministry are liable to be cancelled.
The prime minister directed the Interior Ministry to work out a comprehensive policy on issuance of arms licences so as to make the process more convenient and applicant friendly. He also directed that the arms licences should be linked with CNIC database of Nadra.