ISLAMABAD: A decision in principle has been taken to constitute an inter-provincial response force and it will be placed at the disposal of requesting province to handle emergencies, disasters etc. The decison was taken at a high level meeting chaired by Federal Minister for Interior Rehman Malik here on Tuesday.
The meeting reviewed law and order situation in the country.A committee headed by the Secretary Interior and comprising Additional IGPs of all provinces and Islamabad will submit recommendations on the composition of the force and its terms of reference.A special provincial force shall be raised by all the provinces to guard dignitaries, diplomats and delegates from abroad. This will release regular police force and law enforcement personnel, who will remain available for their regular duties.
The meeting was attended by Secretary Interior, Provincial Home Secretaries, IGPs, Chief Commissioner, Islamabad, IGP Islamabad, DG, NCMC and representatives of Rangers, FC and intelligence agencies.IGP Sindh briefed the participants about the law and order situation in Karachi.It was observed that hostile elements were trying to engineer ethnic and sectarian clashes in Karachi, which was also suffering due to the tussle between certain political groups to take over the areas.
It was decided that nobody in Karachi would be allowed to divide the society on ethnic basis. The meeting felt the need to deweaponize Karachi and proposed to the government to legislate for deweaponization of the whole country.
The Interior Minister observed that stolen cars were a major instrument in the hands of terrorists to commit acts of violence and crimes.He directed the Chairman NADRA to devise and design a software for vehicle tracking mechanism which once operationalised would greatly restrict not only car thefts but also check terrorists activity.The PTA Chairman was directed to report updated figures of unauthorized SIMs blocked so far. The Interior Minister was of the view that the blockage of approximately one million SIMs had greatly curbed the incidents of terrorism and crime.
The NADRA was directed to develop a database of criminals and their family members so that the family tree of criminals was known to all police authorities as well as law enforcement agencies (LEA).
It was also decided the special branches of provinces would be interconnected to share data on the terrorists enabling the provinces to benefit from the investigations of other provinces.
The NADRA was directed to provide the networking facilities.It was also decided that all the old arms licences would be renewed with new ID of the licence holder. It would come into force from Jan. 1 next year.Amendments in Anti Terrorism Act (ATA) was also discussed and the Minister directed to expedite its clearance and approval from the legislature.The meeting was told that the movement of foreigners had also been checked thoroughly by the police. A check would be maintained on anti-state elements through respective SHOs and special branch. The minister was satisfied with inter-provincial coordination of the law enforcement agencies and directed to hold the rotational meeting at Karachi. – APP
