ISLAMABAD, March 9: The government has decided to allow the foreigners, particularly the diplomats, to keep arms but they will have to have a valid arms licence, an official source said on Friday.

The diplomats interested in getting arms licence would apply to the ministry of foreign affairs, and forward a copy of this application to the ministry for interior, the official source said.

The foreigners wanting to get the arms licence would be issued “temporary arms licences” (only for hunting) once their application was recommended by the ministry of foreign affairs.

However, the source said that the Inspector General of Police Punjab Malik Asif Hayat strongly opposed the idea of issuance of arms licences to the diplomats, for self-protection, during the inter-provincial conference on law and order.

The IGP Punjab was of the view that the diplomats should not be given arms licence when the government had banned their issuance to local people, the source said.

The Sindh government is evolving a policy for issuance of arms licences to foreign diplomats based in Karachi for self-protection, the source added.

The government has already launched an amnesty scheme for the recovery of illegal arms. However, the recovery of arms during the post-amnesty period was not satisfactory.

The interior minister had directed that unserviceable weapons recovered from the people should be destroyed by bulldozing, cutting and melting.