‘Govt should buy guns from Gilgitis’

PML-N’s local chief advocates a Nato-style de-weaponisation drive in Gilgit-Baltistan.

GILGIT: An opposition party leader on Thursday proposed a Nato-style de-weaponisation drive in Gilgit-Baltistan that would involve purchasing weapons from gun-owning residents.

Hafizur-Rehman, the regional chief of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), dared the provincial government to adopt the measures if it wanted to sincerely de-weaponise the area.

“Nato applied this strategy in Afghanistan and succeeded in disarming the people,” Rehman told reporters at a news conference.

The regional PML-N chief’s briefing was the first after a stalwart of his party was injured by unidentified persons early this week in Gilgit. The PML-N has set a three-day deadline for the arrest of the culprits and warned of serious consequences  in case the administration failed to do so.

By offering to buy their weapons, he said, the government would encourage people to voluntarily submit their arms to the government and give them an opportunity to earn something in return for their property.

He proposed that the government should award a certificate to whoever submits his weapons. “It will encourage them to further cooperate with the government,” he said, adding that Nato had allocated $500 million in Afghanistan for that purpose and achieved the desired result.

Rehman added that the government in Gilgit has failed to purge the town of illegal arms despite the fact that it has been conducting search operations for quite some time to recover illegal arms.

This year the government has spent Rs1 billion so far on the transportation of security  forces so that they could carry out patrols. But, according to Rehman, this had proved ineffective.

He said that so far more than 700 people have been killed in Gilgit over the years, out of which the perpetrators of 75 per cent of the cases remain untraced.

Rehman also said that police stations in Gilgit have been facing an acute shortage of manpower.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 26^th, 2010.