Daily Times

Sir: Recently, I happened to visit the District Commisioner’s (DC) office and went to the arms licence counter for the purpose of converting my manual arms licence to a computerised arms licence. After braving the line for nearly 90 minutes, the gentleman behind the window informed me that my licence could not be computerised because it had been made in a different province. Upon meeting the in-charge at the arms licence counter, it was disclosed that they do not have the provision (or directives from the authorities) nor do they have means to verify arms licences from other provinces for converting/computerising the licence even though it is an “all Pakistan” type of licence and has been registered in the DC’s office, its fee being paid for many decades in Karachi.

May I request the concerned authorities, first of all to make more windows in the DC’s office for licences and then display clearly above the windows that licences from outside Sindh province will not be considered so that the licence holders’ time is not wasted? Especially the elderly should not have to wait that long. Secondly, a clear-cut policy on this issue must be announced by the government through the media so that the licences made from other provinces are also accepted for the computerisation process and the last date of application must be pushed to February 15, 2014 for such cases. What I fail to understand is that when one provides all the details on the form along with copies of the CNIC, the government can easily track and find out the record from other provinces. There is no need to refuse the genuine arms licence holders.

M ASIF

Karachi