After verification: 70 of 250 weapon licences found to be fake

Licence Branch of DCO’s Office has confiscated about 800 fake licences.

LAHORE:

More than 70 of the 250 weapon licences that were issued during the last few months have been found to be fake, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The Licence Branch of the DCO’s Office had confiscated about 800 fake weapon licences from citizens who had come to verify them. They were all issued in the last five months in Lahore and other districts of the Punjab. A message had been disseminated a couple of days back through the media after which around 250 weapon licence-holders approached the DCO’s Office for verification of their licences. Out of the 250, more than 70 were found to be fake.

City district government officials said they would confiscate the fake licences and would ask the weapon-holders to become complainants against weapon dealers who had issued the licences. They said so far only one man had agreed to file a complaint but he too had backed out the next day. He had given an affidavit, saying that  he had mistakenly filed a complaint against a weapon dealer who had helped him get a licence.

The officials said the men were either threatened or influenced to back out of the complaints. They said that a complicated legal process also deterred the aggrieved from becoming a complainant.

City government officials believe  weapon dealers were mainly involved in issuing the fake licences. They said that out of a total of 55 dealers in the Lahore city, around 10 were involved making fake licences.

They said that despite having information, they were unable to take action against them because they had no case without a complainant. They said three lawyers, stamp dealers and low-ranking government officials were also involved in issuing fake domiciles and weapon and traffic licences.

The officials pointed out that the fake licences were made using the old design. Only computerised licences have been issued after July 2010.

They said the procedure to issue a weapon licence could not be initiated without the presence of a licence-seeker in the DCO Office.

They said the licence-seeker was photographed in the Licence Branch. Later, his documents are sent to the Pakistan Security Printing Press, Karachi from where a computerised license with eight water marks and two different serial codes is issued.

They said that dealers charged around Rs20,000 from a licence-seeker that officially cost Rs5,000.

The officials said they would launch a covert operation against the dealers. They said that they also expected to find someone who was ready to become a complainant against them.

DCO’s Staff Officer Tariq Zaman said people had started approaching them to get there licences verified. He said people voluntarily offering their licenses for verification would not be prosecuted even if their licences were found to be fake.

He said they were building a strong case against people involved in the illegal business. He said the city district government would request the provincial government to cancel the licences of corrupt arms-dealers.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 3^rd, 2012.