The Auditor General of Pakistan has identified audit objections worth Rs8.32 billion in the Ministry of Interior, highlighting major financial irregularities, unrecovered fees and flaws in arms licence records.
According to the Auditor General’s report for 2025-26, sub-departments of the Ministry of Interior failed to recover more than Rs4 billion.
The audit report revealed that the Ministry of Interior did not collect fees and fines related to bulletproof vehicle permits and weapons licences.
According to the report, Rs2.24 billion in fees and fines for bulletproof vehicle permits were not collected. It further stated that annual fees were not recovered from 164 no-objection certificates issued for bulletproof vehicles.
Rs5.62bn arms licence fee not deposited
The audit report also pointed out that Rs5.62 billion in fees for 3,421 arms licences was not deposited in the national treasury.
Audit authorities objected to the ministry’s failure to convert arms licences from manual books to machine-readable licences. The report said more than 16,000 of the total 25,516 arms licences were issued for prohibited bore weapons.
Flaws found in prohibited bore licence data
The Auditor General’s report also identified flaws in the data used for issuing prohibited bore arms licences.
Audit officials said weaknesses in record-keeping and data management raised serious concerns about the handling of arms licence information. The report said the failure to make arms licences machine-readable also affected transparency and monitoring.
The audit report further highlighted irregularities worth Rs410 million in procurement-related matters of the Ministry of Interior.
According to the report, Rs2.58 billion was spent on procurement, while audit objections were raised over irregularities linked to the process.
Internal control audit objections of more than Rs410 million were also identified.
Fraud, embezzlement concerns raised
The report also pointed to irregularities worth Rs290 million related to fraud and financial embezzlement.
Audit authorities said the findings showed weaknesses in financial management and oversight within the Ministry of Interior and its attached departments.
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