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Cabinet bans

prohibited

bore licences

ISLAMABAD: The Cabinet has imposed a ban on the issuance of prohibited bore arms licences, except under the Prime Minister's approval, and all prohibited bore arms licences issued during the period December 1, 1988, to August 22, 1990, have been cancelled except for some exempted categories.

Federal Minister of Law and Justice N.D. Khan told the National Assembly while replying to a question on behalf of Interior Minister. He said the government as a matter of policy discourages proliferation of illegal arms in the country. Issuance of licences for prohibited bore weapons has been restricted to very few cases, which are issued with the approval of the Prime Minister only.

To bring peace and tranquillity in urban areas where high crime rate is directly related to the ever-increasing number of weapons with the people, the government has decided to declare big cities as weapon-free. Initially, federal territory of Islamabad has been declared a weapon-free zone.

To a supplementary Khan said that government under a consistent policy striving to recover the illicit arms and so far 9,449 arms have been recovered.-APP