PESHAWAR, Aug 8: Federal Minister for Industries and Production Liaqat Ali Jatoi has said that the federal government would make all possible efforts to promote the exports of sporting arms and vintage guns (replicas of foreign products) manufactured at Darra Adamkhel in an effort to improve the country’s foreign exchange earnings.

Talking to newsmen here on Friday after inspecting stalls set up at the two-day defence equipment exhibition the minister expressed the hope that the show would help promote the country’s defence equipment exports, particularly, the vintage guns and sporting arms being manufactured at the tribal town of Darra Adamkhel.

He brushed aside the impression that the exhibition was a failure for not receiving respectable number of visitors and expressed the hope that its results would be visible in a few months time as Darra Adamkhel’s arms and sporting guns were getting encouraging response from the international market.

In reply to a question he said that he would take up with the NWFP chief minister (Akram Khan Durrani) the issue of creating troubles on the part of the provincial authorities concerned for the exhibiters from Darra Adamkhel.

The Home and Tribal Affairs department, NWFP, adopted extra ordinary care to lend permission to the exhibiters from Darra Adamkhel to transport their illicit sporting guns and other weapons to the site of the exhibition for display.

“I would take up the issue with the chief minister, if we want to improve their exports then we would have to facilitate them,” said Mr Jatoi.

Replying to a question he said the federal government, too, was taking measures to facilitate the Darra Adamkhel’s vendors involved in manufacturing sporting and vintage guns.

The two-day defence show organized at the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) laboratories ended here on Friday without attracting visitors from among the general public.