ISLAMABAD: In a significant move, caretaker interior minister Sarfraz Bugti on Friday placed a ban on the issuance of arms licences.

The order was passed by the interior minister soon after formally assuming charge of his office.

Weeks before the end of the coalition government term, the lawmakers in the National Assembly on several occasions had strongly protested over the delay in the issuance of arms licences and the non-cooperative attitude of the bureaucracy in this regard.

The strong protest by members, including allies in the ruling coalition, had compelled Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to direct the interior secretary to issue arms licences within a week to the lawmakers who had applied for it and completed all formalities.

Even the then parliamentary secretary for interior Mohammad Sajjad of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had lodged a strong protest, stating that he was also unable to meet the then interior minister, Rana Sanaullah, over the issue.

Mr Sajjad stated he had been unable to get the minister’s signatures on his own file, stating that he had seen the members wandering in the corridors of the ministry for hours waiting for the interior minister.

The issue had been initially raised on a point of order by PPP’s Ghulam Mu­­stafa Shah, who was also heading a special committee on the issue of arms licences.

The former PPP MNA had protested over the absence of the interior minister and other officials of the ministry from the committee’s meetings. He had also warned of disrupting the parliamentary proceedings by pointing out quorum.

Former NA speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq of the PML-N had tried to pacify the agitated lawmaker and said he had talked to the minister and he had promised to clear the backlog.

However, the lawmakers were seen protesting over non-issuance and non-renewal of their arms licenses till the last days of the previous assembly.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2023