KARACHI - The Sindh Assembly’s standing committee on home affairs on Thursday recommended the provincial government not to bear the expenditures of federal forces like Rangers and Frontier Constabulary deployed in the province and spend these funds to strengthen the Sindh police.
The committee, which met with its chairman Haji Anwar Mahar in the chair at the Sindh Assembly, discussed the budget proposals of home department for next financial year 2012-13. Other than members of the PA body, the AIGs of police, additional secretaries of finance, home and planning departments also participated in the meeting.
The home department officials briefed the committee that the provincial government was spending around Rs1 billion on the Rangers and Frontier Constabulary annually.
They told the committee that the Sindh government from its exchequer was providing operational expenditure to the federal forces as the central government was not ready to share it. However, the chairman and other members including MQM’s Rehan Zafar and PPP’s Saleem Hingorjo unanimously recommended the Sindh government to divert the budget of federal forces towards the Sindh police. The committee in its recommendations decided to write a letter to Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Hussain Wassan, urging them to approach the federal government for payment of budget of Rangers and FC, deployed in Sindh for the help of police.
The PA body in its recommendations advised the provincial government to spend the budget of Rangers and FC for strengthening of police through fresh recruitments in the provincial force. The facilities to the police and fresh recruitments will help in maintaining the law and order in the province, committee members observed.
Meanwhile, the Sindh Assembly’s body approved 12 uplift schemes of home/police department including computerization system of arms licence in all the districts, construction of the police stations and residential facilities of the police officers in the province.
The committee members pointed out that complaints of irregularity in the computerized arms licences had been received. However, the home department officials admitted the complaints, saying that a number of complaints received during the initiating the computerizing arms license system, had been addressed.
Officials said that establishment of Computerised Arms License Management System in all the districts of the Sindh province have been proposed in the next fiscal year.
In collaboration with Nadra, the home department has already established a Computerized Arms License Management System in Karachi, which envisages personal appearance of the applicant at Call Centre for data entry, photograph and thumb impression.
The very first system for computerised licensing of arms was inaugurated in Karachi during the tenure of Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza as home minister of Sindh. The authorities believed that the start of the computerized licensing of arms as the first step towards elimination of illegal weapons in Sindh.
To replicate the computerised arms license management system in all the districts of Sindh, the home department has sought a sum of Rs96.2475 million for next budget of financial year 2012-13.