Sunday, November 10th, 2024
Home »Top Stories » Karachi operation: Nisar enumerates achievements

  • News Desk
  • Dec 18th, 2015
  • Comments Off on Karachi operation: Nisar enumerates achievements
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said on Thursday that the Rangers' operation in Karachi reduced targeted killings by 53 percent, murders by 50 percent, robberies by 30 percent and terrorism by 80 percent in the city of teeming millions. The minister said this while briefing the National Assembly about the performance of his ministry. He said the Karachi operation was initiated on September 05, 2013 for restoring peace in the biggest city of the country.

The minister said his ministry successfully handled the backlash of military operation Zarb-e-Azb and extended significant support to this operation. Regarding actions against corruption and mismanagement in the ministry and its attached departments, Nisar said a total of 2666 inquiries were initiated, 56 officers and officials were suspended and 49 cases were registered against officers and officials.

He said as many as 10 officials were arrested and 64 officials were removed from Federal Investigation Authority (FIA). He said that 100,000 national identity cards were blocked. He said the salaries of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) employees are less than the salaries of employees of police department. "No foreign security agency is allowed to operate in the country. There is no presence of Blackwater or any foreign intelligence agency in Islamabad. Complete restriction has been imposed on the entry of foreigners and irrelevant persons into the ministry without prior permission," Nisar said.

He said that a system is being introduced for online visa applications and a summary has been sent to the Prime Minister for revision of Pakistan visa policy. He said that 9.528 million passports were issued during the last two and a half years, generating a Rs 43 billion revenue, which was deposited in the treasury.

Nisar said the terrorists are on the run as a result of massive co-ordination among the interior ministry, law enforcement agencies, intelligence agencies, provincial governments and military. He said a total of 900 files of intelligence information were shared with the provinces during one year.

The interior minister said the lack of human resource is a big problem. Both human resource and complex procedures are being focused on to remove cumbersome bureaucratic processes and human discretion, he added. The minister said that un-entitled security personnel as well as un-entitled persons doing household duties with VIPs have been withdrawn. He said thousands of civil armed forces officials have been withdrawn from VVIP security and have been deployed to protect lives of the common citizens.

He said a complete ban was imposed on issuance of all new arms licences in order to verify and re-validate 352,843 manual licenses issued during 2008 to 2013. He said, "On the reports that a large number of illegal companies are involved in retrofitting of bullet-proof vehicles. A ban was extended to granting such No-Objection Certificates (NOCs) from ministry. Enquires through FIA have been initiated in such cases, which resulted in closure and seizure of numerous retrofitting companies and arrest of their management operating with fake NOCs."

He said the ministry adopted a policy of non-issuance of NOC to the security companies unless they fulfil the criteria for requisite number of arms and expertise as defined by "our internally drafted Standard Operation Procedure (SOP)." Nisar said there is a complete ban on foreign visits by various departments of the ministry which resulted in reducing 32 percent of expenditures borne by the national exchequer due to such foreign visits during year 2013-14.

He said the practice of government officials getting themselves directly nominated from foreign embassies for courses funded by the respective countries of such embassies is being strictly monitored. He said that every ministry should present its performance in the parliament for accountability. He said the performance of the ministries should be discussed in the House and the government should learn from the right criticism of members.

While responding to the objections of the members on National Action Plan (NAP), the minister said the NAP is a separate issue and he is ready to give a comprehensive briefing on it. He said a separate day should be fixed to discuss the NAP in the House. "There is no direct link of my ministry with the NAP; however, I take its responsibility," Nisar added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2015


the author

Top
Close
Close