ISLAMABAD: Senate Standing Committee on Interior terming several
clauses of Anti-Terrorism Amendment Act as violation of basic human
rights has made it clear that the committee cannot give its nod to the
bill with its eyes closed.
The meeting of the standing body
chaired by Senator Talha Mehmood was held on Saturday at the Parliament
House in which seven point agenda was discussed.
Giving reply
to questions of the members Federal Interior Secretary Siddiq Akbar
said that Anti-Terrorism Act is lying with the Parliamentary Committees
and Parliament would give its approval. He told that after the passage
of 18th amendment the federal govt had imposed a ban on issuing of arms
licenses from July 1st as now the authority to issue arms license lays
with the provinces we would only issue licenses for Islamabad. However
Sindh, Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa and Balochistan have asked us that license
of prohibited bore should be issued by the federal government while
Punjab itself wants to issue license for prohibited bore.
The
remaining provinces would have to get a resolution passed from their
respective assemblies if they want center to issue licenses for
prohibited bores. He said that the issue would be settled after
approval of summary from PM and meeting of the Council of Common
Interest.
The standing committee during the meeting has also
directed for action against land mafia while Chairman Committee Talha
Mehmood said that Police is party to increasing car theft and crime. He
said that Young officers should be appointed as SHOs in police stations
and these appointments should be made on merit
SSP Rawalpindi
Yasin Farooq admitted that the rate of crime in Rawalpindi witnesses an
increased in 2011 as compared to 2010. He told the committee that in
the first six months of the current year 181 incidents of murder, 45 of
armed robbery, 304 of theft, 484 of car theft, 11 of kidnapping for
ransom and 23 rape cases were registered.
He further told that
68 search operations with the army were conducted in which 2600 homes
were searched, 5193 people were scrutinized and action was taken
against 311.
The committee also sought a complete report on car
thief Don Hassan from the Punjab government and in this regard Chief
Secretary and home secretary Punjab have been summoned for the next
meeting.
Earlier DG Passport told the committee that no MP has
two passports . Only those people who have dual nationality can keep
two passports. Interior Minister has directed for referring the cases
to FIA of those who have made two passports illegally.
Talking
to media after the meeting Chairman Talha Mehmood said that charges
leveled against IG Islamabad for occupying a factory and a warehouse is
a serious matter and for this a subcommittee has been constituted which
would investigate the matter.
He said that dubbing of Raiwand
Tablighi Markaz as a den of extremism was an irresponsible statement
and such statement could deter the situation. He said Anti-Terrorism
Amendment Act is an important law and we can’t just approve it with our
eyes closed. The committee is going through the act thoroughly and
several of its clauses are in negation to basic human rights and
several members have objected against these clauses until the
reservations of members are removed the committee would not approve the
bill. Online
