Nisar forms four committees to review security policy

Calls for recommendations on existing policies on ECL, bullet proof vehicles, among others

ISLAMABAD: To make the country’s security system more active and transparent in countering terrorism, Interior Minister Chaudhary Nisar has formed four high-level committees for a policy review.

Chairing a meeting at the Ministry of Interior on Tuesday, Nisar assigned senior officers to prepare their recommendations for existing security policies on the Exit Control List, granting permission for bullet-proof vehicles, regulating security companies and grant of arms licenses, within seven working days.

“Each committee will be headed by a senior officer of the rank of additional secretary,” stated an official statement.

Exit Control List

Regarding the ECL, the interior minister said it was unfortunate that in past, it was blatantly misused and names were entered or removed on personal whims and wishes.

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“Neither any heed was paid to these anomalies nor to correct the faults in the system,” he said. “There is a need for putting in place a proper system for making entries into the ECL with clearly defined parameters.”

Bullet-proof vehicles

Discussing bullet-proofing of vehicles, Nisar underscored the need for devising a mechanism to ascertain the need of granting the permission to any person. He said an assessment committee should scrutinise and analyse such requests, without referring it to intelligence agencies in the first instance.

“Only citizens who are regular tax-payers and have a genuine security concern should enjoy this facility,” he said. “We need to discourage elements who use bullet proof vehicles as status symbols.”

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He added that there should be a centralised office at the federal level to maintain record of all the bullet-proof vehicles, which should be instantly updated in case of a change in ownership.

Regulating security companies

On regulating security companies that provide private services to civilians, Nisar said that the new policy should focus on making companies look after the welfare of their employees, for instance death, disability, insurance, and so on.

Arms licenses

Discussing the existing policy on granting arms licenses, the interior minister stressed upon the need for early re-validation of existing arms licenses, and tasked the committee to come up with a workable proposal on how to expedite this process.

He advised the committee to consider how an effective check on the number of licenses to be issued could be maintained.

The meeting was attended among others by secretary interior, Nacta officials, commissioner Islamabad and senior officials of NADRA.