Gun licences — an institutional fraud
The truth is that more than half of gun licences are not traceable to any individual
The writer is a health, safety and environment consultant based in Karachi
One must appreciate the Punjab home minister for exposing the ugly truth that the government has been hiding for all these years, “Fifty per cent of all gun licences issued in Punjab are fake, while 900,000 licences have been issued without keeping any record of who they were issued to.” These figures are just a tip of the dysfunctional iceberg of Pakistan’s gun-licensing scam, a system entirely based on fraud, bribes, appeasement, absence of any background checks, discretionary approvals and missing records. The truth is that both the federal and provincial governments have very little clue of the millions of licences that have been distributed, gifted, stolen or sold in the last 10 years.
Let us attempt to piece together some of the publicly-known facts relating to proliferation of state-sponsored gun licences in Pakistan. Punjab has finally admitted to 900,000 fake licences out of the 1.8 million that it churned out. Newspapers have revealed that 3.5 million licences issued in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa are not traceable in official records. The Supreme Court’s suo-motu case 16/2011 concluded that the federal government had issued 1,202,470 licences while the Sindh government issued 400,000 during the previous five years. The former interior minister, Rehman Malik, officially confirmed issuing 69,473 licences of prohibited bore weapons to parliamentarians alone, while a Sindh minister publicly admitted to having issued 300,000 licences to his supporters.
The truth is that more than half of gun licences are not traceable to any individual. Almost 90 per cent of these were issued without any mandatory security or background checks. A gun licence is essentially an instrument of political bribe and appeasement, typically issued to those who wield power, money or influence. The rest have to pay bribes or have to employ other underhand means to obtain licences. They even resort to buying fraudulent licences, a practice often facilitated by officials and middlemen. The corruption of the system can be best understood by the fact that even Malik Ishaq, head of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, managed to receive 11 prohibited bore gun licences from the federal and provincial governments.
This greed for weapons is insatiable. There are some 20 million weapons in civilian hands. The Sindh government is promoting guns by holding shooting competitions and the Punjab government has announced reopening of licences from February onwards. Considering that we are already in the midst of a civil war, this mad race for collective suicide is completely beyond reason. Article 256 of the Constitution explicitly forbids the formation of private armies. The state has grossly violated this law by actively promoting the spread of weapons, resulting in the formation of armed outfits belonging to individuals, mafias, religious or political parties. The rulers, however, refuse to see the lethal link between weapons, violence and the war called Zarb-e-Azb. This link ought to be completely dismantled if we expect there to be any sort of peace in Pakistan in the years to come.
We need to begin by striking down the highly discretionary Arms Ordinance, which enables licences to be issued at the district level. No individual must have the authority to issue arms licences to anyone. Withdrawal of all gun licences should be announced in a phased programme for surrender of all weapons — licensed or otherwise. Tough options must be readily available for those who do not comply. No individual, regardless of rank, status, political, tribal or religious affiliation must be allowed to use, possess , carry or display any weapon or explosive of any class.
There are two huge hurdles in the path of deweaponisation: a weapon-greedy ruling elite and a government that has neither the will nor the capacity to implement such a programme. Deweaponisation is essential to victory in any war against terrorism. There may not have been any need to carry out operations in the tribal areas if we had prevented the inflow of weapons to militants. It may, therefore, be best to make deweaponisation a component and objective of the current fight against militants, in order to prevent another protracted and painful conflict. The survival of Pakistan may well be dependent on this.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 15th, 2015.
Let us attempt to piece together some of the publicly-known facts relating to proliferation of state-sponsored gun licences in Pakistan. Punjab has finally admitted to 900,000 fake licences out of the 1.8 million that it churned out. Newspapers have revealed that 3.5 million licences issued in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa are not traceable in official records. The Supreme Court’s suo-motu case 16/2011 concluded that the federal government had issued 1,202,470 licences while the Sindh government issued 400,000 during the previous five years. The former interior minister, Rehman Malik, officially confirmed issuing 69,473 licences of prohibited bore weapons to parliamentarians alone, while a Sindh minister publicly admitted to having issued 300,000 licences to his supporters.
The truth is that more than half of gun licences are not traceable to any individual. Almost 90 per cent of these were issued without any mandatory security or background checks. A gun licence is essentially an instrument of political bribe and appeasement, typically issued to those who wield power, money or influence. The rest have to pay bribes or have to employ other underhand means to obtain licences. They even resort to buying fraudulent licences, a practice often facilitated by officials and middlemen. The corruption of the system can be best understood by the fact that even Malik Ishaq, head of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, managed to receive 11 prohibited bore gun licences from the federal and provincial governments.
This greed for weapons is insatiable. There are some 20 million weapons in civilian hands. The Sindh government is promoting guns by holding shooting competitions and the Punjab government has announced reopening of licences from February onwards. Considering that we are already in the midst of a civil war, this mad race for collective suicide is completely beyond reason. Article 256 of the Constitution explicitly forbids the formation of private armies. The state has grossly violated this law by actively promoting the spread of weapons, resulting in the formation of armed outfits belonging to individuals, mafias, religious or political parties. The rulers, however, refuse to see the lethal link between weapons, violence and the war called Zarb-e-Azb. This link ought to be completely dismantled if we expect there to be any sort of peace in Pakistan in the years to come.
We need to begin by striking down the highly discretionary Arms Ordinance, which enables licences to be issued at the district level. No individual must have the authority to issue arms licences to anyone. Withdrawal of all gun licences should be announced in a phased programme for surrender of all weapons — licensed or otherwise. Tough options must be readily available for those who do not comply. No individual, regardless of rank, status, political, tribal or religious affiliation must be allowed to use, possess , carry or display any weapon or explosive of any class.
There are two huge hurdles in the path of deweaponisation: a weapon-greedy ruling elite and a government that has neither the will nor the capacity to implement such a programme. Deweaponisation is essential to victory in any war against terrorism. There may not have been any need to carry out operations in the tribal areas if we had prevented the inflow of weapons to militants. It may, therefore, be best to make deweaponisation a component and objective of the current fight against militants, in order to prevent another protracted and painful conflict. The survival of Pakistan may well be dependent on this.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 15th, 2015.