Nawaz, Shahbaz and Qaim under threat from terrorists: Malik
08 October, 2009
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leaders Nawaz and Shahbaz Sharif and Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah are facing threats from terrorists, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Wednesday.
Malik told reporters outside the Parliament House that scanners would soon be installed in all major cities to improve security. To a question regarding the movement of foreign diplomats with sophisticated weapons, Malik said the diplomats were not allowed weapons without licences, adding that the government had rejected requests from several diplomats who wished to travel to other parts of the country.
Malik said he had asked the Foreign Office to take up the issue of the Dutch diplomat carrying weapons without a licence with the Dutch government and urged foreigners to obey the law. He said the government had ordered police to seize diplomats’ cars bearing “fake” private number plates.
The interior minister said the government had taken up the issue of drone attacks and transfer of drone technology to Pakistan with the US government, adding that Pakistan was at war against those who wished to destabilise the country. He said the government was surveying Islamabad’s residential areas to ascertain the number of houses rented by US nationals. Malik said around 50,000 people crossed the Pak-Afghan border daily and the Afghan government was reluctant to introduce Biometric screening at the border.
Ealier, replying to a point of order raised by Raza Rabbani in the Senate, Malik said the government had made it clear to the British authorities that it was not ready to allow its officials to come into Pakistan to establish a counter terrorism authority. He said the country’s armed forces were capable to set up such an authority themselves, adding that the government was “ready to help set up the authority but not ready to let the British operate it inside Pakistan”.
Rabbani had questioned the law under which the Dutch diplomats carrying unlicensed weapons were allowed to go free by security agencies. He said Pakistanis “were being treated as second-class citizens in their own country”.
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