Interior ministry to submit report on illegal weapons in Karachi

Public Accounts Committee seeks details of weapons illegally issued in the names of parliamentarians.

ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has directed the interior ministry to submit a report regarding illegal weapon licenses issued using the names of parliamentarians.

Interior secretary Qamar Zaman Chaudhry told the committee, meeting in Islamabad on Monday, that more than a thousand illegal weapon licenses have been cancelled in this respect.

He said that out of the 45,000 weapons' licenses issued, only 15,000 were legal.

This comes in the wake of fresh violence in Karachi, where the incidence of political killings is again on the rise. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has also submitted a draft bill in the National Assembly Secretariat that calls for banning the production, proliferation, smuggling, import and use of firearms and ammunition and explosives “to restore public order in the country”.

The PAC also took notice of the misuse of Islamabad traffic police's revenue stream of Rs23 billion.

According to an audit report presented in the meeting, the traffic police violated the laws of the finance division when they used the fine money.