Getting rid of guns

For any de-weaponisation plan to be effective, it will have to start at the top with complete stop to issuing licences

There is nothing to argue with, in principle, regarding the prime minister’s proposal to de-weaponise Pakistan. There is no doubt that Pakistan would be a safer and more harmonious place if weapons were removed from the hands of private individuals, criminals and anybody else who sought to misuse them. The prime minister is specifically addressing the problem of “armed groups” in the country and that covers a very wide spectrum indeed, including political parties. There are around 20 million guns in civilian hands it is estimated, an unknown proportion of them illegally held.

For any de-weaponisation plan to be effective, it will have to start at the top with the complete cessation of the right to issue weapons licences by parliamentarians. The federal and provincial governments have to bear much of the responsibility for the proliferation of firearms. Former interior minister Rehman Malik has confirmed issuing 69,473 licences for prohibited bore weapons to parliamentarians during his tenure. A Sindh provincial minister admitted issuing 300,000 licences to his supporters. The entire licensing system is a vehicle for political preferment, fraud and bribery. There are no background checks on applicants for firearms, millions of licences are absent from the official record — and all this before we approach the problem of illegally-held weapons by armed groups. Indeed, it is reported that the late Malik Ishaq of the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi was able to procure 11 licences for prohibited bore weapons from both the federal and provincial governments. The scale of the problem is almost beyond comprehension. There are some groups that consider a firearm a cultural adjunct — a necessary item of clothing. De-weaponising them is going to require a cultural paradigm shift that will span generations. Guns are never easily given up once procured, and although we support the prime minister’s proposal in principle, we look askance at its practical application.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2015.

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