ISLAMABAD - The federal government is considering to lift ban on issuance of arms licenses, both prohibited and non-prohibited, as Ministry of Interior is in the process of finalization of recommendations on relevant policy.

The recommendations as well as suggestions on the policy for the issuance of arms licenses will continue to be finalised till the end of January 2017, Secretary Interior Arif Ahmed Khan informed the National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior on Wednesday.

The committee met under the chair of National Assembly Member Rana Shamim Ahmad Khan. The secretary interior further avoided to share details of the recommendations proposed by the Ministry of Interior saying final decision has yet to be taken.

MNA Ghalib Khan viewed that Ministry of Interior neither succeeded to prepare new arms licenses policy nor it could verify the issued licenses during the last three years.

He blamed the ministry for its incompetence and said that the public and especially members of the parliament were facing problems because of it. The committee took up 10 different government and private members bills, some of them were approved, while some were disapproved and deferred.

However, MNA Salman Khan Baloch opposed the government sponsored bill “The Illegal Dispossession (Amendment) Bill, 2016”.  However, the meeting passed it with majority of votes.

Baloch was of the view that the committee should defer the bill till next meeting as members have not studied it yet.

During the meeting, the chair and Salman Baloch also exchanged hot words with each other. The parliamentary penal also approved “The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2014”, a private member bill seeking increase in punishment for theft.

The bill proposes increase in punishment for theft from three-year imprisonment to five years.  The committee constituted a sub-committee under the convenership of MNA Syed Javed Ali Shah.

The sub-committee will consider all the private members bills lying pending before the main committee and submit its report within 30 days to the main committee.