KP apex committee session: Action against illegal activities in systematic manner directed

PESHAWAR: The Provincial Apex Committee on Wednesday decided to continue actions against the spectrum of illegal activities in a more effective and systematic manner and directed the relevant entities to ensure well-coordinated actions to this end.

The resolve was reiterated at the third session of the committee held here with caretaker Chief Minister Muhammad Azam Khan in the chair, said a handout.

KP Caretaker KP Finance Minister Ahmad Rasool Bangash, Chief Secretary, Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry, Inspector General Police, Akhtar Hayat Khan, Corps. Commander Peshawar Lt- Gen. Hassan Azhar Hayat, Additional Chief Secretary Home, Muhammad Abid Majeed, administrative secretaries of relevant departments and other officials attended the meeting. The forum took stock of the progress on the implementation of its decisions taken in the last session with regard to curbing the illegal spectrum. The participants reviewed progress on the repatriation of illegal immigrants to their homelands.

The meeting reviewed in detail actions taken by various provincial and federal entities against illegal spectrum including smuggling, extortion, use of illegal SIMS and weapons, Hawala/Hundi, fake documentation, narcotics and non-custom-paid vehicles, etc in the province.

The relevant provincial and federal departments gave detailed briefings to the forum about the achievements/progress of their departments to curb the illegal spectrum.

Matters related to the profiling of NCP vehicles and registration of Madaris also came under discussion.

The forum reiterated the resolve to deal with the issue of the spectrum of illegal activities with an iron hand, specially the issue of extortion. It was decided to have a special session of the Apex Committee focusing only on extortion with the aim to devise a comprehensive strategy to effectively deal with the issue. The form stressed the need to have special checks on the supply of narcotics in educational institutions, and it was decided to initiate a crackdown against the big fishes involved in the manufacturing and supply of narcotics whereas Anti-Narcotics Force.

The Excise Department and Police were directed to devise a joint strategy to curb the narcotics.

The forum paid rich tributes to the sacrifices of security forces and law-enforcement agencies in the war against terrorism, offered fateha for the martyrs who lost their lives during the recent terrorism activities, and expressed sympathies with the bereaved families.

The chief minister said that officers and Jawans of security forces and LEAs had offered sacrifices adding the government and people held these sacrifices in esteem.

He maintained that the government, security forces and the entire nation were determined to deal with terrorism, and stressed the need to curb all the illegal activities which are anyway helpful in promoting terrorism.

He directed the officials of all the relevant entities to ensure the implementation of the Apex Committee decisions in letter and spirit, and strengthen the coordination mechanism amongst all the stakeholders with the aim to deal with illegal spectrum in the desired manner.