SUKKUR, May 19: The Sindh Government is studying a proposal of relaxing the conditions of issuing arms licences to the common people of Sindh for self-protection.

The Sindh chief minister, Ali Mohammad Khan Mahar, said this while talking to newsmen at his native village, Khan Garh, Ghotki District, on Sunday.

He said that a proposal to give the quota of arm licenses of non-prohibited bore weapons to elected representatives of Sindh is also in its final stages. The quota for the licences will be given to MNAs, senators, MPAs and Nazims who will recommend to the authorities concerned for issuing arm licences to the people of their respective areas. In this connection a policy will be announced soon, he added.

However, he took serious notice of an information about fake licences which were being issued from the NWFP and Balochistan in back dates and some districts of Sindh were issuing duplicate copies of these fake licences for Sindh province.

He took serious notice of the fact that the residents of Sindh were receiving these fake licences from other provinces through private agents.

He had learnt that the dealers of the NWFP and Balochistan were selling weapons on these fake licences, and the weapons were being brought to the villages of Sindh in large numbers.

FIRE: Five houses were reduced to ashes in a fire which broke out in village Dinpur near Thull on Monday.

The fire started when some one threw a live match stick on a stock of husk. It engulfed the entire village as a result of which houses of Mohammed Sharif, Haji Jagan, Bahar, Mohammed Jafer and Dino burnt completely.

A fire fighting brigade from Thull took two hours to put out the fire. Twelve cattle heads also burnt in the fire.