An alleged issuance of suspicious arms licenses through the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Home Department's online arms licensing system, "Dastak," has come to light, prompting authorities to launch an investigation.

According to sources, more than 200 arms licenses were printed without the approval of the Home Department's Arms Branch. The licenses were reportedly neither approved nor processed by the relevant Deputy Commissioners (DCs), District Police Officers (DPOs), or the Home Department in accordance with the prescribed procedure.

Sources said authorities are investigating whether the system was hacked, subjected to fraud, or whether an official government login used for license approvals was accessed unlawfully.

As a precautionary measure, the Home Department's Licensing Branch has temporarily suspended the verification of arms licenses through the Dastak application across all districts.

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Meanwhile, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa IT Board Managing Director Aakif Khan confirmed that the board had received a complaint from the Home Department regarding the Dastak application.

According to the IT Board chief, a forensic audit of 21 suspected arms licenses is currently underway to determine the facts behind the matter.

He added that the Dastak application is currently offline due to an ongoing system upgrade. Future enhancements to the arms licensing system will include facial recognition and other advanced security features to help prevent similar incidents.

It is worth noting that in 2023, a major scandal involving the issuance of 5,000 fake government arms licenses from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Home Department's Arms Branch also surfaced, raising serious concerns about the integrity of the licensing system.