Most of arms licences go to ministers, MPs

Wateen

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Rehman Malik has refused to disclose the identity of "four unknown persons" who were issued 713 licences of prohibited weapons by his ministry since 2008, while his deputy minister of Interior Tasneem Qureshi broke all previous records by issuing more than 250 such licences in his own name, enough to support a small private army of his own.

Guns on display

A list submitted in the National Assembly showed a total of 29,000 licences of both prohibited and non-prohibited weapons were issued by the interior ministry since 2008 when the PPP had come into power. Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira got about 135 arms licences.

Tasneem Qureshi had earlier come under fire in the recent meeting of the Senate body on interior after his involvement in the dubious issuance of licences was questioned by the participant of the meeting.

But, interestingly the government refused to give names of four persons who were issued over 700 licences of prohibited weapons. Under the rules, the government is bound to give details of names of each individual issued a prohibited bore licence but still the government kept mum over the identity of these four individuals. None of the parliamentarians also insisted upon knowing the identities of these individuals.

Following is the list of some of the powerful ministers and the MNAs who got licences of prohibited arms. The names of the minister and MPs will appear at different spaces in the following lines with different numbers of arms licences issued as they were taking licences from time to time.

MNA Saimina Khalid, 9; Rubina Sadaat Qaimkhani, 5; Naseer Bhutta, 20; Afzal Khokhar, 20; Minister of State for Interior Tasneem Qureshi, 70; Riaz Pirzada, 8; Imtiaz Safdar Warraich, 10; Roshan Din Juneo, 28; Bilal Yaseen, 18; Humaira Rokhri, 24; Nawab Ali Wasan, 18; Mir Ali Magsi, 18; Abdul Qadir Khanzada, 23; Water and Power Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, 26; Tourism Minister Attaur Rehman, 12; Anjum Aqeel Khan, 18; Petroleum Minister Naveed Qamar, 15; Senator Maulana Rahat Hussain, 68; Minister for Local Bodies Razzak Thaheem, 36; Environment Minister Hameedullah Afridi, 27; NWFP Chief Minister Amir Haider Hoti, 21; Ramesh Lal, 14; Defence Production Minister Abdul Qayyum Jatoi, 11; Noor Alam Khan, 8; Jam Yousuf, 11; Hina Rabbani Khar, 12; Parliamentary Secretary for Interior Ghulam Mujtaba kharal, 14; Minister of State for Interior Tasneem Qureshi, 42; Imran Hamid Shah, 39; Mian Javed Latif, 18; Senator Nasir Mengal, 33; Minister for Livestock Humayun Kurd, 25; MPA Nadir Magsi, 22; Amir Muqam, 21; Dost Muhammad Mazari, 36; Usman Khan Tarakai, 24; Nazar Gondal, 20; MPA Muhammad Amin Umrani, 50; Minister for Tourism Attaur Rehman, 37; Munir Orakzai, 24; Rana Tanveer Hussain, 59; Water and Power Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, 15; Raza Rabbani, 2; Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Farooq Sattar, 32; Maulana Fazlur Rehman, 10; Rukhsana Bangash, 17; Munir Orakzai, 16; Senator Lashkari Raisani, 24; Hameedullah Afridi, 38; Petroleum Minister Naveed Qamar, 15; Asfandyar Wali, 15; Minister for Local Bodies Razak Thaheem, 45; Malik Azmat, 68; NWFP CM Amir Haider Hoti, 27; Ramesh Lal, 25; Minister Imtiaz Safdar Warraich, 27; Minister of State for Interior Tasneem Qureshi, 42; Sheikh Waqas Akram, 26; Munir Orakzai, 30; Defence Minister Ch Ahmed Mukhtar, 25; Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira, 23; NA Standing Committee for Interior Chairman Abdul Qadir Patel, 25; Qamar Zaman Kaira, 40; Minister for Railways Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, 32; Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, 15; Senator Saeed Hashmi, 37; Housing Minister Rehmatullah Kakar, 11; Senator Rahat Hussain, 85; Senator Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, 44; Railways Minister Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, 46; Senator Faisal Raza Abidi, 30; Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar 26; Minister of State for Interior Tasneem Qureshi, 46; Minister for Labour Khurshid Shah, 15; Munir Orakzai, 26; Mahreen Bhutto, 24; Qamar Zaman Kaira, 23; Maulana Attaur Rehman, 56; Communication Minister Arbab Alamgir Khan, 40; Amir Muqam, 38; MNA Ayaz Amir, 29; Qamar Zaman Kaira, 48; Minister for Livestock Humayun Kurd, 26; Minister for Investment Waqar Ahmed Khan, 20; Health Minister Makhdoom Shahabuddin, 20; Tasneem Qureshi, 25; Labour Minister Khurshid Shah, 14; Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, 26; Jaffar Zaidi of Inter Risk (Pvt), 88; Maulana Fazlur Rehman, 20; Tasneem Qureshi, 39; Tasneem Qureshi, 33; Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, 39; Aftab Sherpao, 12; Makhdoom Amin Fahim, 16; Balochistan Governor Nawab Magsi, 33; MNA Faryal Talpur, 9; ex-Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah, 4; Wapda Chairman Shakeel Durrani, 100; the PPP president, 30; Ch Wajahat Hussain, 20; Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, 28 and others.

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