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Karachi, May 27, 2015 (PPI-OT): Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah taking policy decision in the cabinet meeting has cancelled 595,146 arms license because the licensees failed to verify their licenses from the concerned offices.
This decision he took while presiding over the cabinet meeting here at CM House today.
The meeting was attended all the cabinet members including Nisar Khuhro, Sharjeel Memon, Murad Ali Shah, Dr Sikander Mandhro, Makhdoom Jameel, Gianchand Israni, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, Manzoor Wassan, Jam Khan Shoro, Mumtaz Jakhrani and others.
Home Secretary Mukhtiar Soomro briefing the cabinet said that there are 1057,456 arms licenses in the province for which verification process was started. So far the government has received 462,310 license verification applications, of them 56,891 licenses have been verified while Nadra 184,750 licenses are pending with NADRA and 272,510 licenses are pending with concerned deputy commissioners.
The chief minister said that the figures presented by the home secretary shows that 559,146 licensees who have not applied for verification. The cut of date for verification was May 19, 2015 and it has passed now. “Therefore, I hereby decided to cancel their licenses from this day,” he decided.
He said that Pakistan Rangers in their 457 operations arrested 293 culprits of banned Organisation and recovered 350 weapons and 15092 ammunitions. On this the chief minister appreciated the efforts of Pakistan Rangers.
The Home Secretary said that Pakistan Rangers was also participating in Ghoti operation being carried out against dacoits. “The police and Rangers have arrested 23 suspects,” The chief minister directed the Home secretary t coordinate with Police and Rangers to clear the katcha area of Ghotki, Sukkur and Kandhkot-Kashmore of dacoits.
Mukhtiar Soomro said that according to the senses of 2005 there were Afghanis 135734 Afghan refugees in Karachi, of them 92646 were registered, and upto May 2015 33468 Afghanis have been repatriated.
AW and Order:
The IG police, Ghulam Hyder Jamali briefing the cabinet said that the tragic incident of Safoora Goth on May 13, 2015 in which 45 innocent people of Ismaili community were killed. “The police worked day and night and finally arrested four persons who confessed to have committed Safoora Goth tragedy and killing renowned social worker Sabeen Mahmood,” he said and added that the Sindh police was highly thankful to the prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Chief Of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif and Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah appreciated the Sindh police. This appreciation has boosted the morale and spirit of the police.
Giving the names of the arrested culprits the IG said, Tahir Husain Minhas alias Sain alias Zahid alias Naveed alias Khalil alias Shaukat alias Mota so/o Khadim Hussain Minhas, Saad Aziz alias Tin Tin alias John alias Aziz Shaikh, Mohammad Azhar Ishrat alias Majid son of Ishrat and Hafiz Nasir Ahmed alias Yasir son of Afzal. It was Tahir Hussain who stepped up in the bus and opened fire and killed 45 innocent people.
They have confessed to have committed other crimes such as firing on US national lady Ms Debra Lobo in area of Ferozabad police, magnet bomb attack on Naval personnel at Dalmia; suicide attack blast on Rangers officials, grenade attack on schools; bomb blast and target killing on Bohri Community; bomb attacks on police mobiles and target killing of police personnel in Karachi and Hyderabad.
Talking about High court incident of May 23, former Home Minister Dr Zulfikar Mirza appeared in ATC court for confirmation of his bail. Along with him there were number of vehicles in which plain clothes armed personnel carrying sophisticated weapons tried to enter into high court premises. They were stopped by the police and arrested.
Giving crime statics Mr Jamali said that from January to May 26, 2014 some 1,707 murder cases were registered while in the same period of 20015 830 murders were registered. This shows a reduction of 877 murder cases. In the same period f 2014 31 kidnapping cases were reported in 2014 which came down to seven in 2015 showing a reduction of 24 cases.
Terrorism cases in 2014 were registered 13 while in the same period of 2015 only five cases were registered. This shows a decline of eight cases. In 2014 there were 214 extortion cases in 2014 while in 2015 there are 111 showing a reduction of 103 cases in 2015. In 2014 some 1345 cases of robbery and dacoities were registered while in 2015 this figure came down to 1026 showing a reduction of 319 in 2015.
The IGP giving details of the police action said that from January to May 26 2015, 127 terrorists of Al Qaida, TTP, LeJ and SSP have been killed 58 arrested. 53 target killers killed and 54 arrested. 16 kidnappers killed and 10 arrested. 2250 dacoits/criminals killed and 3951 arrested.
WHEAT:
Minister for Food Mr Gianchand Israni briefing the cabinet said that his department has procured 854,986 ton till May 26, 2015. “By the end of this month the initial target of 900,000 ton would be completed. The additional target of 200,000 would also be achieved by June 2015,” he said.
He said that the old wheat stocks of the wheat (crop 2014) is 697,000 tons, procurement of wheat for 2015 1100,000 tons. The local requirement for flour mills and chakkies would be 1,100,000. Thar and other relief operation 100,000 tons. It would come to 12,00,000 tons even then there would a surplus of 597,000 tons of wheat. The chief minister directed the food minister to store the wheat properly so that forthcoming monsoon may not damage the stored grain.
Finance:
Finance Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah briefing the cabinet said that in order to mobilize our own resources and to improve public financial management Sindh has entered into an agreement with World Bank and initiated Sindh Public Sector Management Reform Project’ . Under the project preparation of budget strategy paper `Transparency in budget formulation, allocation and execution’ would be achieved.
He said that finance department in coordination with Planning and Development Department has prepared Budget Strategy Paper 2015-16. The main contours of the papers include government policies, priorities, strategic allocations of resources and key macro-economic assumptions over the medium term framework.
He said that the net actual receipts for 2012-13 and 2013-14 remained at Rs469.42 billion and Rs510 billion respectively as against budget estimates of Rs570.8 billion and Rs595.5 billion showing variance of 17.76 percent in 2012-13 and 14.37 percent in 2013-14. The variation is attributed to shortfall in federal transfers, provincial own receipts, federal development grants and foreign assisted projects.
Murad Ali Shah added that the sluggish economic growth rate, inefficiencies in tax administration and tax collection, ban on disposal of government land and delay in execution of donor funded projects were mainly responsible for less than target receipts of province.
The finance minister said that the revenue transfers from federal divisible pool, straight transfer and grants constituted 80 percent of total provincial current revenue receipts in 2012-13 and 82 percent in 2013-14. The revised estimates of revenue transfers from federal divisible pool, straight transfer and grants for current financial year amount to 81 percent of provincial current revenue estimates as against budget estimates of 79 percent.
He said that the provincial government is trying to reduce dependence on federal receipts with focus on own resource generation effort through Sindh Tax Revenue Mobilisation Plan with aim to reduce share of federal transfers from 81 percent at present to 78.7 percent in year 2017-18.
For more information, contact:
Mr. Allah Bachayo Memon
Press Secretary
Chief Minister House
Tel: +92-21-99202019
Cell: +92-300-3524057 (Ext: 336)