Pakistan

Government ready to validate old arms licences

The ministry says it has issued around 425,000 arms licences since 1947

Azam Khan October 26, 2015

The ministry says it has issued around 425,000 arms licences since 1947. PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has approved a proposal to revalidate arms licences issued before 2002 since their records had been destroyed during the tenure of the previous regime, officials said.

According to the new arrangements, approved by Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, claimants can approach the National Database and Regulatory Authority (NADRA) to have their arms licences verified over the next 18 months. Fake claimants, though, could face legal action, an official of the interior ministry familiar with the development told The Express Tribune.

Arms licences: Nisar issues deadline till December for validation

The interior ministry had lost a significant chunk of its arms licence records, issued since the creation of Pakistan till 2002, after they were destroyed in a fire during the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) government. The ministry says it has issued around 425,000 arms licences since 1947.

In a bid to computerise arms licences and to crack down on illegal arms, the government had in July 2013 banned issuance of new licences and had warned that all existing licences, which had not been verified by NADRA, would stand cancelled after December 31, 2015.

A top interior ministry official said that they had sought a one-time special approval from Nisar to revalidate the arms licences issued before 2002.

The meeting, headed by the interior minister himself, was told that out of the 425,000 licence holders, as many as 182,000 have yet to contact NADRA to verify or revalidate their licences. Nisar directed the concerned officials that they had 15 days to write to each of these licence holders and ask them to have their licences verified.

Arms verification: Sindh govt cancels over 595,000 arms licences

“A total of 170,000 licence holders have submitted their arms licences to NADRA for verification. Of these 78,000 are yet to be verified, while 6,000 were found to be fake,” the joint secretary at the interior ministry told the meeting. He added that as many as 72,414 computerised arms licences had been verified by the ministry through NADRA.

The meeting also agreed that the ministry would provide NADRA a list of 20,000 verified arms licences for issuance on a fast track basis.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 26^th, 2015.

COMMENTS (3)

hello | 8 years ago | Reply all licences be computerized by licence office its their internal works like other departments do why there is difficult process to get the forms why cannt be downloaded from net?

Ahsan Khurshid | 8 years ago | Reply I am one of the lucky one who finally got arm licence from mim of interior through nadra after almost 4 years. These licences had expiry date as of Jan 2015. On my objection nadra has given me a copy of min of interior letter extending the validity upto 31 Dec 2015. Nadra has no update or SOP for renewal of these licences.... I would like to remind ministry through you to decide a clear policy for the renewal of these licences before its to late.

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