F.P. Report
PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mahmood Khan here on Friday instructed Home and Tribal Affairs department to make the mechanism of issuance of computerized arms license, easier and simple.
The Chief Minister also directed to make functional the computerized arms licensing in districts of Kohistan, Torghar, Batagram, Tank as well as across all newly merged tribal districts of the province.
Presiding over a meeting on digitalization of arms licensing at Chief Minister Secretariat, Mahmood Khan also directed the concern authorities to upgrade the old and manually made arms licenses issued earlier.
The meeting was also attended by Special Assistant on Information Technology Kamran Bangash along with Secretary Home and Tribal Affairs and other administrative officers.
The meeting was briefed about the need and importance of digitization of arms licensing. The meeting was told that digitization of arms license was started in 2012 and completed in March 2018. The meeting was also told that Secretary KP has an edge of being running all this mechanism independently unlike other provinces and so far more than two hundred thousand of computerized licenses have been issued under this initiative.
The Chief Minister appreciated the department for its initiative and directed to make it faster and quicker for general public.
He was also told that computerized arms license got many security and information features, being helpful and supportive for law enforcement agencies. The meeting was further informed that computerized arms license could be verified both online and offline through scanning the barcode.
The Chief Minister was told that from applying till issuance of the license, in the whole process, the applicants were kept informed through SMS. Even the fee could also be paid through online means. “Districts of upper, lower Kohistan, Torghar, Tank and Batagram are about to be turned up for computerized arms licensing while roadmap for newly merged tribal districts is being under consideration.
The Chief Minister was also told that through issuance of two hundred thousand licenses, a revenue of 600 million was generated which is almost double as compare to previous four years.
The Chief Minidter directed the concern quarters to upgrade the old arms licenses for which human and financial resources would be provided to accomplish the task of upgrading more than 2.5 million arms licenses. He assured the meeting his full support and cooperation and directed his Special Assistant on IT Kamran Bangash to take it up as joint venture with Home Department and make it an ideal initiative of the province.
The Chief Minister also directed to extend this computerized licensing to dealers and manufacturers and to keep track record of arms sell and purchase across the province.
