ISLAMABAD, April 5: The interior ministry has imposed a ban on issuing licences for weapons of prohibited bores from April 1, according to a senior official of the ministry. He told Dawn that now only the president and prime minister could issue such licenses. Earlier, federal interior minister and provincial chief ministers had the authority to issue the licenses.

Most of the political leaders, civil and military officials, businessmen and other influential people possess weapons of prohibited bores.

Last year, the interior ministry provided a list to the National Assembly, containing the names of some politicians who possess the weapons.

The ban aimed at discouraging the use of automatic weapons and Kalashnikov culture in the country, the official said.

He said the interior ministry would keep a check on investigation of criminal cases in every province and with an estimated cost of Rs1.30 billion, police stations of four provinces, Azad Kashmir and Pakistan Railways would be computerized.

The police stations would be linked with each other with telecommunication means and the project would be completed in three years, he added.

The Police Record Office Management Information System would be used to analyse the efficiency of police officials in a scientific way, he said.

He said the interior ministry had acquired latest equipment from the United States to introduce the Automated Fingerprints Identification System.

He said the DNA laboratory in Islamabad was a part of the National Forensic Science Laboratory.