ISLAMABAD: In view of the threats to his family, the government provided a son of former chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) Tassaduq Hussain Jillani with three arms licence, including one for a prohibited bore weapon, a year after such licences were banned.

Minister of State for Interior Baleeghur Rehman told the Senate on Wednesday that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had directed the Interior Ministry on June 30, to provide foolproof security to Justice Jillani, who was still CJP at the time, shortly before his retirement.

Also read: Outgoing CJ to avail security protocol after retirement

The order also applied following his retirement because of the threats to himself and his family as two of the judge’s relatives had been kidnapped from Multan. In addition to the provision of a security detail, the former chief justice had also requested arms licences for his son, Mohammad Saqib Jillani, who lives with him. The prime minister had then approved three licences, one for a prohibited bore weapon and two for non-prohibited bores.

Minister says PM approved the licences in view of threats to their lives

The House was also told that another one prohibited bore licence had been issued to Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany, a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, in view of the threats to his life.

Detailing the procedure adopted to issue these licences, the minister said these were issued in relaxation of a prevailing ban as the security of an individual and his family was involved, on the orders of the Prime Minister’s Office. The House was informed that prohibited bore arms licences were issued with the approval of the prime minister as per the Arms Policy of 2012, while non-prohibited bore licences were issued by the Interior Minister. The approvals are forwarded to the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), which issues the computerised licences after completing legal formalities.

Explaining the current government’s policy on already-issued arms licences, Baleeghur Rahman said that while no new licences were being issued, the process of verification and computerisation of old, manually-issued licences was under way.

Nadra issues computerised arms licences that are initially valid for one year only. They are then retained for verification from the interior minister. After verification, Nadra issues computerised arms licences for five years, where an already-paid fee for manual licences is adjusted.

Answering another question, he said Nadra was renewing arms licences issued by the interior ministry and had started revalidation in August 20111. He said the Ministry had so far authenticated 47,015 old booklets, of which 23,558 had been renewed by Nadra and the remaining 23,457 had not yet been approached. “These individuals have been contacted through the media and via SMS to renew their expired licences from Nadra at the earliest,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 23rd, 2014