KARACHI: Holders of manual arms licences may have to wait for at least one more month to get their computerised licences as the authorities believe that the lengthy process of computerisation will start only after the end of a deadline set for filing applications for verification of the manual documents, it emerged on Monday.

A senior official said that the applications submitted for the computerised arms licences would now go through a verification process, which required micro-level checks and could take time.

“First our entire focus is to attract maximum number of applications before the deadline ends on February 15,” said Sharfuddin Memon, a consultant to the Sindh home department. “After that the process of verification will start and then issuance of computerised licences. The process is lengthy and may take a month after the deadline ends.”

Thoughts shared by Mr Memon may help scores of the applicants who are waiting for their computerised licences if they are informed about it officially.

The Sindh government had on Jan 30 extended the deadline for another 15 days i.e. Feb 15, to receive applications for computerised arms licences on the grounds that the ‘cumbersome process’ required more time for the licensees to complete it.

In September 2013 the government had put an immediate ban on issuance of new arms licences before launching a campaign against illicit weapons in Karachi in Oct 2013 in line with the Supreme Court orders that also included verification of hundreds of thousands of licences.