ISLAMABAD, July 17: Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali will preside over a high-level meeting here on Friday to discuss the law and order situation in the country.

Talking to Dawn, Interior Minister Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat said here on Thursday the meeting would be attended by all the four governors, chief ministers, provincial interior ministers, provincial chief secretaries and other senior federal and provincial officials.

The meeting, he pointed out, would discuss various proposals relating to law and order situation, religious extremism and the incidents of terrorism. “The meeting will take very important decisions on law and order,” he said.

A separate plan, he added, was being finalised for checking crimes in major cities. However, he declined to give the details of the plan, and said: “Let it be a secret and known only to the concerned people.”

The minister said the government had already increased three-fold the allocation for improving law and order and eliminating terrorism from the country.

Asked from where would the government get the extra resources to increase allocation three-fold for improving law and order situation, the interior minister said Pakistan had started receiving substantial financial support from the United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom for this particular purpose. “We will be spending billions of rupees on law and order.”

Mr Faisal Hayat said the Bush administration and the three European countries had decided to extensively cooperate with Pakistan by extending financial and technical assistance.

“Their crime experts would soon start visiting Pakistan to undertake joint anti-crime exercises with their Pakistani counterparts,” he said, and added that foreign experts would frequently visit all the four provinces to achieve the desired results.

“We have also been assured generous supplies of most modern equipment, weapons and technology to hunt down terrorists of Al Qaeda, Taliban and other fanatic organisations,” the interior minister said.