KARACHI, July 30: Federal Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat has revealed that the main culprits involved in the carnage in an Imambargah in Quetta about a month back have been identified and a majority of them rounded up.
“The cause of this incident has also been sorted out and the credit goes to the Intelligence agencies which accomplished the task with their excellent professional competence and hard work,” he remarked while responding to newsmen’s queries during his visit to the office of Citizen-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) at Governor House here on Wednesday.
The minister said that no government could provide 100 per cent security to all its citizens against any subversive activity or act of terrorism.
In response to a question, he claimed that leaving aside the Quetta carnage, overall law and order situation in the country was quite satisfactory as, unlike past, no sect or religion-related incident had been reported from any part of the country.
He said that the government stood firm in its resolve to ensure better security to the masses as prevalence of peace and harmony would ultimately spur economic activities in the country which would help generate employment opportunities for an overwhelming number of the jobless.
Replying to a question about Sialkot jail incident, which had claimed lives of three judges and which clearly indicated at the easy accessibility of arms to jails. This is a serious issue as the prevailing jail system is full of lacunae, he conceded.
When his attention was drawn towards nagging problem of vehicle snatching and theft in an organized manner in the port city, the minister said that this issue should be seen in the context of social, economic and political scenario.
Karachi, being the largest city of the country, has been facing a number of problems and vehicle snatching is one of them, he said adding that proper investigation into the causes of this problem and pre-emptive measures were the key to a remedy.
“Besides, a constant liaison and working relationship between community and law enforcement agencies may also help combat this menace which has assumed critical dimension over a period of time,” he said.
FPCCI: Addressing businessman community at the head office of the FPCCI, Faisal Saleh Hayat said that overall law and order situation in the country, particularly in Karachi, was relatively satisfactory.
“The international security agencies in the United States, the European Union and that of the United Nations have in their recent report placed Karachi at 30th in terms of law and order as compared to 8th about three years back,” he pointed out.
On the demand of the businessman community, the minister said that the government was ready to set up CPLC offices in all the major cities of the country, but at the same time there were concerns about the limits of the institution and its interference in the affairs of other related departments.
About the Police Order 2002, he said it had already been announced that the Order would be in place till the end of September this year.
He said new computer-readable passports would be issued from the middle of next year. He observed that the present passports were easiest to be acquired by anyone and referred to various cases in other countries where foreigners were caught for using forged passports as Pakistanis.
ECL LIST: There are some 2,000 people, mostly businessmen, still on the Exit Control List (ECL) as against the previous number of 4,000, the interior minister told FPCCI.
“We don’t want anybody to be put on the ECL unnecessarily,” he said and added that majority of the cases pertained to commercial banks, financial institutions and Central Board of Revenue. — PPI/APP
