ISLAMABAD - The Interior Ministry has sought proposals from all the provinces and Gilgit-Baltistan to have their input on the proposed draft of Counter and Control of Improvised Explosive Devices Bill, 2012 that will soon be tabled in the Parliament.
In this regard, an important meeting was held in the ministry with Interior Minister Rehman Malik in the chair to review the progress regarding strategy for implementation of executive policy for curbing the Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) by all the stakeholders and provinces.
The high-ups of federal as well as provincial governments and representatives of all law enforcement agencies attended the meeting.
The government is facing enormous pressure from the US to curb the production of IEDs as it thinks ammonium nitrate fertilizer, a key component being used in the manufacturing of IEDs, is illegal transported from Pakistani side to Afghanistan. According to US, these roadside bombs have emerged as the deadliest weapon used by Taliban fighters against NATO troops in Afghanistan. A US Congressional panel recently has frozen $700 million in aid to Pakistan until it gives assurances to curb the spread of IEDs.
The meeting decided that the proposed draft of the bill would be circulated to all provinces and stakeholders as well for further deliberations on it. For this purpose, the Director General Civil Defence will share the draft of the bill with the provincial governments of Punjab and Sindh and have their input from concerned Chief Secretaries, Home Secretaries and Inspector Generals of Police (IGPs).  Similarly, the Joint Secretary (Law) of the Ministry of Interior (MOI) will do the same exercise in case of Khyber Pakhtunhkhwa, Balochistan and Gilgit-Biltistan.
Both the officers will submit their joint report to the ministry with the revised draft bill, and the same will be sent to the Cabinet Division for approval after having the advice pf Law and Justice Division.
Rehman Malik also directed the Secretary Interior to form a committee under the chairmanship of Director General, National Police Bureau for the revision and modification of Blue Book keeping in view the new challenges and security trends. The direction was given to reform the outdated Blue Book according to the need of the hour. Secretary Interior will also seek proposals from provinces and other stakeholders while revising Blue Book by taking on board home secretaries and IGPs of all provinces, ICT, AJK and GB. The participants from the provinces endorsed that timely issuance of SOPs, instructions, threat alerts and security orders helped in averting major terrorist attacks.