KARACHI, Dec 8: The provincial government will approach the federal government to enforce a special law for recovering illegal arms and ammunition in the province.

Confiding this to Dawn on Monday, well-placed sources said that a request for putting the Illicit Arms Recovery Act, 1991 into effect was initially made by the Karachi capital city police to the Sindh home minister as the provincial government’s warning to the arms licence-holders for registration of their weapons with the police and issuing authority failed to bring about desired results.

The sources said the city police chief, CCPO Waseem Ahmed, had written a letter to the home department for approaching the federal government for the activation of the special law to rid the city of illegal weapons. They said the home minister had in principle approved the city police request and the provincial government would move to the federal government for the enforcement of the IAR Act in Sindh soon.

The sources said the accused in the illegal arms possession cases would be tried under Section 7 (1) C of the Anti-Terrorism Act by an anti-terrorist court, involving life imprisonment, once the arms recovery act was implemented in the province.