PESHAWAR - A high-level meeting to formulate explosive policy for the province was held in Civil Secretariat Peshawar on Wednesday with Special Secretary Home & Tribal Affairs Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Alamgir Shah in the chair.
The meeting discussed in detail the matters and suggestions regarding the formulation of the said policy in order to regulate and monitor the manufacturing, transportation, selling, possession and use of explosives in a lawful and judicious manner.
The meeting was attended by the highups of Home & Tribal Affairs Department Police, Customs, Excise and Taxation, Agriculture, Mines & Mineral, Information Departments, all Deputy Commissioners and Political Agents and representatives of FATA Secretariat, FIA, 11 Corp of Pak Army and other relevant departments.
The meeting also discussed matters to explore ways and means to curb the misuse of commercial chemicals and to encourage use of Urea and DAP in agriculture sector. Issues related to regulate fertilizer and explosive dealing at provincial, district, tehsil and police station level, to curb smuggling of explosives, heavy weapons and parts of bomb making equipments also came under discussion and number of important decisions were made to this effect.
The meeting was told that the Home & Tribal Affairs Department was working on establishing an inspectorate to monitor the use of commercial explosives at district and tehsil level so that these explosives could not be misused. Agriculture and Revenue Department were asked to develop a mechanism to regulate the supply of chemical fertilizers to the farmers, register the deposit points of fertilizers and keep proper record in this regard.
The meeting asked the Commissioners to identity and specify the total land under cultivation in all districts and the required quantity for the land. The meeting stressed on the need of a mass awareness campaign to education the masses. Regarding such materials and the Information Department was assigned the job of carrying out the awareness campaign.
The concerned departments were directed to ensure that no dealer of explosive materials, transport, possesses or sells explosives in excess to the quantity specified in the license issued to them. The bomb disposal squad was asked to provide the list of all the components and materials used in bomb making. It was proposed in the meeting that explosive tracking system be introduced, deployments of search teams be made and blasters license be issued only to trained and technical personnel.
The chair directed all the concerned quarters to send their proposals concerned quarters to send their proposals in written to the Home & Tribal Affairs Department so that the policy could be finalized.