ISLAMABAD, June 28: The Senate Standing Committee on Interior meeting here on s Saturday termed the presence of foreign embassies in residential areas a ‘threat’ to the lives of common people and directed the concerned departments for their prompt shifting to the highly secure area of Diplomatic Enclave.

However, security agencies have already converted all foreign missions located in residential areas outside the Diplomatic Enclave into “Enclosed Restricted Areas” (ERA) to tighten the security around them.

The committee meeting presided over by its Chairman, Senator Talha Mehmood, discussed the issue of diplomatic missions, residences of diplomats and UN offices situated in ordinary residential areas of Islamabad and held them as security risks to the people living and frequenting such localities.

The senate body formed a sub committee to take up the issue with the foreign office and embassies to ensure their relocation from residential areas to the diplomatic enclave.

Senators Sadia Abbasi and Col (retd) Tahir Hussain Mashadi said due to functioning of foreign missions, embassies and their offices in residential areas the people have been facing problems in addition to facing security threat.

Speaking on the occasion, Capital Development Authority (CDA) Chairman Kamran Lashari said it was in the domain of the Foreign Office to pursue the matter with the embassies and foreign missions to shift to the diplomatic enclave.

Meanwhile, sources in the CDA said since the suicide bomb blast outside Danish Embassy on June 2 that claimed the lives of eight people, over a dozen foreign missions have contacted the CDA for seeking approval for construction of their embassies on their allotted plots in Diplomatic Enclave and some of them had even submitted their site plans in this regard.

Some of these missions are Holland, Norway, Malaysia, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Malaysia, Libya, Australia, Saudi Arabia and Korea.

Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Islamabad, Syed Asghar Raza Gardezi, informed the meeting that security of Diplomatic Enclave, embassies and foreign missions had been strengthened by taking a number of measures.

There were 70 points in residential areas where foreign missions’ offices were located. Some 280 security officials of Frontier Constabulary had been posted there, and persons and vehicles entering the area were being thoroughly checked and verified.

He said another batch of 104 security personnel had been guarding the residences of diplomats located outside Diplomatic Enclave at 26 different points.

The IGP asked the committee that the capital police needed more manpower and resources for maintaining law and order in Islamabad. “Some 1,500 sanctioned posts are still lying vacant in police department due to ban imposed by the government on new employment,” he added.

The Senate body chairman, Talha Mehmood, formed a committee to take up the matter with the Foreign Office and representatives of embassies to ensure their relocation in the diplomatic enclave. Kamran Lashari informed the committee that the total area of existing Diplomatic Enclave was 795.28 acres.

The Authority has allotted 56 plots to embassies, 37 were lying vacant despite many embassies having constructed their buildings in the Diplomatic Enclave, he added.

He said as many as 37 embassies and foreign missions were functioning in residential areas and 11 of them had so far not been allotted plots for construction of their offices in the Diplomatic Enclave.

The embassies and foreign missions functioning in residential areas are: embassies of Algeria, Norway, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Syria, Hungary, Denmark, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, Philippines, Belgium, Malaysia, Sudan, Oman, Libya, Brazil, Romania, Afghanistan, Thailand, Bangladesh, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Holland, Korea, Portugal and Portugal (Chancery), British Council, Greece and visa office, Republic of Northern Cyprus, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Finland and Latvia, UNDP and UN.

Embassies of Australia, Saudi Arabia, Holland and Korea have constructed their buildings in the Diplomatic Enclave but still functioning in residential areas, the CDA chief said.

He said CDA was working on development of a new diplomatic enclave on an area measuring 788.40 acres which will be developed in three years.

Chief Commissioner Islamabad said that Rangers had been engaged for the security of Diplomatic Enclave and other important places. This has resulted in a huge burden on the budget of the local administration.