ISLAMABAD - Federal Interior Ministry on Friday, as part of its ongoing deweaponisation campaign in the country, decided to extend the deadline for the revalidation as well as computerisation of old arms licenses till December 31 for the third time consecutively because it had started the campaign without doing proper homework, an insider informed TheNation. A spokesman of National Database & Registration Authority (NADRA) through a statement describing the reason for the extension in deadline said that it had been extended on the directives of Ministry for Interior due to widespread rains and floods in Sindh and dengue epidemic in Punjab province. This deadline encompasses all Pakistan for renewal of arms licenses specifically issued by Ministry of Interior, further says the official handout issued by NADRA. However, the sources aware of the development describe this reason as a lame excuse, saying that Interior Ministry was busy extending the deadline one after the other only because Interior Minister Rehman Malik announced the deweaponisation campaign in haste without doing any proper homework. A credible source in the Ministry of Interior further said that the ministry had not so far taken on board all the provinces for revalidation of old arms licenses issued by the provincial authorities. It was further learnt reliably that the ministry had no plan in the pipeline how it would confiscate those arms licences. , not revalidated within the given deadline, as it has no data of all those licenses issued by it. After the passage of the 18th Amendment, the ministry has no authority to force the provinces for revalidation of arms licenses from NADRA issued by them as the matters related to the arms licenses went into the jurisdiction of provinces after the landmark constitutional amendment. NADRA is revalidating the arms licenses only issued by the Ministry of Interior so far and not those issued by the provincial authorities, a senior official of the Authority confirmed. Interior Ministry while announcing the campaign had announced that all arms licenses throughout the country not revalidated by NADRA within the given deadline would cease to exist. The ministry first extended the deadline for the revalidation of arms licenses from August 31 to September 30 and then gave extension for another month till October 31 for the second time.