January 31, 2008	Thursday	Muharram 21, 1429

KARACHI, Jan 30: The Sindh government is considering relaxing the arms licence policy to curb smuggling of weapons, improve law and order and enable law-abiding citizens to protect themselves against criminals, Dawn has learnt.

Provincial home department insiders said that the existing policy, which restricted the issuance of arms licences to 300 per month, had failed to produce the desired results of maintaining law and order in the province, particularly in Karachi.

In addition to growing street crime, the recent incidents of loot and plunder bore ample testimony to the fact that the flow of unlicensed weapons in the province continued unabated, the sources said.

They disclosed that people in large numbers had applied for arms licences due to prevailing security conditions before the coming general elections. With electioneering gaining momentum, more and more traders and elite of the city had submitted applications for the issuance of arms licences, the sources said, adding that the plans to launch a massive deweaponisation campaign and bring drastic changes in the existing police system were being put on the backburner.

Sindh Home Secretary Arif Ahmad told Dawn that a comprehensive plan was being chalked out to provide protection to industrial zones on the principle of sharing cost with the government and any relaxation in the existing arms license policy would be part of it. He said that a separate force would be raised for industrialists under the plan. This force would work under the supervision of police, he added.

In the light of certain recommendations made by the representatives of civil society in this regard, a summary was being prepared which would be presented to the governor and the chief minister in the next week for approval.