The committee, constituted on the directions of Chairman of Senate standing committee on interior, Senator Talha Mehmood, would also inform about the amount spent by the Interior Ministry on security arrangements of foreign missions, sources said here on Sunday.
As many as 43 diplomatic missionsembassies and 48 foreign companies are functioning in the residential sectors of the Federal Capital, sources in the Capital Development Authority said. They said CDA had also written to Foreign Office to take up the matter with the concerned countries to relocate the offices of these embassies inside the Diplomatic Enclave.
Security arrangements made for foreign missions and embassies in different sectors of the federal capital have always remained a matter of great concern for the citizens.
Recently, the Capital police placed almost waist-high cemented blocks on the roads around these missions and embassies to avoid any untoward incident, but it increased the problems of the residents of these sectors.
The residents of different sectors, parliamentarians and Parliament's standing committees time and again have called for shifting of these missions into the diplomatic enclave, but in vain. Some of the embassies and foreign missions operating in the residential areas belong to those of Algeria, Norway, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Syria, Hungary, Denmark, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, The 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 of Republic of Northern Cyprus, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Finland and Latvia.
Offices of the United Nations Development Programme and United Nations are also situated in residential areas. Senate standing committee on interior in its last meeting had also expressed concern over the delay in shifting of foreign diplomatic missions from the capital's residential areas to the Diplomatic Enclave, and had directed the concerned departments to make serious efforts for shifting of foreign missions from residential areas.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2009