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  • Jan 20th, 2010
  • Comments Off on US training facility at Sahala closed: Malik
Federal Minister for Interior Rehman Malik has said that the US training facility located in Sahala Police Training College, Rawalpindi, was completely closed, while US Embassy's request for prohibited bore licenses was rejected.

The US is spending $20 million on this training programme of the personnel of law enforcement agencies of Pakistan for their capacity building, Malik said while talking to media after attending a meeting of National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior held here on Tuesday.

Malik said that the US embassy complained about the closure of the training facility, but the government asked them to shift the programme to any other location. "Americans will be given any other place for the purpose of training", he said, adding that Australia and France would also train police and other law enforcement agencies for their capacity building.

There is need to take action at the national level to clear the country of the arms, Malik said, adding that people have gathered a large number of sophisticated and lethal weapons in different parts of the country and in case of any uprising it will be difficult for the government to handle the situation. He said that he had issued instruction for inquiry into the licenses issued for prohibited bore during the last seven years.

To a question about arms' licenses scam, he said that bribe of Rs 100,000 to Rs 150,000 was taken for issuing license of the banned pistol. He said that he is discharging his responsibility with complete honesty. "If I felt that there is any hurdle in discharging the national responsibility, I will prefer to resign than to continue as minister", Malik said.

Earlier, briefing the members of the Standing Committee, Rehman Malik demanded of the committee to recommend arms licenses to the people who have submitted demand notes till December 31, 2009. He said that ban on the licenses would continue after December 31, 2009. About the fake arms licenses he said, "We got the initial report on the fake licenses." Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and Awami National Party (ANP) opposed to give any new licenses.

Saad Rafiq of PML-N asked to end the parliamentarians' quota of arms licenses. The National Assembly's Standing Committee on Interior met here on Tuesday with Abdul Qadir Patel in the chair, while Sheikh Waqas, Khwaja Saad Rafiq, Bahadur Khan, Haji Asrar Tareen, Bilal Yaseen and Bushra Gohar attended the meeting.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2010


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