Precautionary steps: Capital’s security being reviewed

Foreign missions in residential areas pose security threats, concerned departments keep shifting responsibility.

ISLAMABAD:

In the wake of the recent terrorist incidents in Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar security of the capital is being reviewed, it has been learnt.

Security of the Red Zone and the Diplomatic Enclave is being reviewed. It also aims to speed up the process of shifting the offices of security personnel and foreign missions currently housed in residential areas to safer place, sources in the Diplomatic Protection Department (DPD) told The Express Tribune on Wednesday.

Interior ministry and foreign ministry have asked the city managers to make arrangements for shifting of foreign missions operating in residential areas to the Diplomatic Enclave.

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The Foreign Office (FO) has written a letter to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) to remove encroachments inside the Diplomatic Enclave, holding CDA responsible for the delay in shifting embassies to the Diplomatic Enclave and removing encroachments.

However, an official in the CDA requesting anonymity told The Express Tribune that the civic authority could only play as a facilitator in the process.

“We are just following the directions of the ministries as far as plot allotments to foreign missions are concerned,” he said.

“It is the responsibility of the interior ministry and the Foreign Office to stop diplomats from living in residential areas,” the official said.

He said that foreign missions, despite having plots in the Diplomatic Enclave, have hired houses in residential areas with the consent of the government.

On the delay in shifting foreign missions, the official said that if the two ministries take the issue seriously then the foreign missions could be shifted to the Diplomatic Enclave.

The Senate Standing Committee on Interior recently expressed concern over placing huge concrete blocks around embassies and missions in different residential areas. The body had already directed the concerned department to make efforts to remove foreign missions from residential areas.

Residents of the capital have approached the CDA and lodged complaints about the embassies and foreign mission offices near their homes several times. People also wrote letters and complaints stating that they were confronted with various difficulties after the conversion of housing units into “Enclosed Restricted Areas.” The worst affected sectors are G-6, E-7, F-7, F-8 and F-10.

An interior ministry official said that the CDA was responsible for developing a new diplomatic enclave for the purpose, but city managers have placed the project on hold. The proposed project would accommodate embassies, foreign missions and their offices currently operating in the residential areas of the capital city, he said.

CDA’s record reveals that a total of 91 embassies and foreign mission offices are operating in the residential areas of the capital. Among them, 48 are offices of the foreign missions and United Nations, while 43 are embassies.

Following the bombings on the World Food Program office and the Danish Embassy, at least 11 embassies contacted the CDA with their site plans.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 22^nd, 2011.