KARACHI: Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza has inaugurated computerised arms licence system to curb issuance of bogus arms licences at the office of Sindh Home Secretary here on Wednesday.Talking to journalists, he said the computerised arms licence management system had been installed at the home department in collaboration with the National Database Registration Authority (NADRA). In the first phase, this system has been installed in Karachi while in the second phase, it will be expanded to five more districts, he added.The home minister said computerised arms licence books would be issued, which would help the department to curb the issuance of bogus arms licences. Applicants will be required to personally appear before the call centre where his or her biometric information would be taken for the licence, he said.Regarding the renewal of old licences, he said the documents of the applicants would be scanned and stored in servers of NADRA and home department while the details of licences and weapons issued before would also be required before issuance of the computerised licence. He said the number of issuance of arms licences would also be increased from 50 arm licences a month to 30 in a day due to the quick computerised system, he said.To a question, he said one of their coalition partners had tabled a deweaponisation bill in the National Assembly, but it had nothing to do with the computerised arms licences.He said deweaponisation means to stop use of illegal arms, but it would not be applicable on licenced arms or legal arms holders.Meanwhile, Dr Mirza also inaugurated Public Complaint Centre (PCC) at Artillery Maidan police station.Addressing the participants, he said the complaint centre would not only entertain the applications regarding criminals and police, but it would also persuade the complaint of other Sindh government departments.
Highlighting landmarks of the complaint centre at Sindh home minister’s office, he said the office received 1,416 complaints since September 24, 2010. He said 451 complaints were received against police regarding their accesses, non-cooperation and negative attitude, while three others were received against Rangers.He said the complaints against police and Rangers were referred to the senior police officer. He said the capital city police officer Karachi reported 302 complaints while regional police officers Hyderabad and Sukkur reported 84 and 25, respectively.He said 53 complaints of kidnapping, 34 domestic violence, 33 robberies, 19 against City District Government Karachi, seven against vehicle theft, four each against home department, education department and Karachi Electric Supply Company, three each against street crimes, Federal Investigation Agency, Rangers and NADRA, two against target killings and one complaint had been lodged against Cantonment Board Karachi. He said some 777 complaints were received against other departments at the complaint centre – Dailytimes
