Citizens Against Weapons, demands complete withdrawal of all weapons from every citizen.
KARACHI: While political statements are often digested with a pinch of salt, the prime minister’s de-weaponisation statement of August 24 calls for a tablespoon full. If one is not mistaken, it is his seventh declaration on the subject. The first came within days of him taking over as the new prime minister in 2013, but then he soon forgot about it. Pakistan had to lose 141 schoolchildren in December 2014 for the prime minister to repeat his de-weaponisation resolve. It was also included as the star feature of the infamous National Action Plan (NAP). The programme was practically given up as a case of infant mortality. To make it easy for the neuron-compromised staff, a standard operating procedure was developed to announce de-weaponisation after every major act of militancy. The attacks on mosques, the bus attack on the Ismaili community and, finally, the suicide attack on Shuja Khanzada, were some of the events that triggered this knee-jerk response.
It is, therefore, only natural and rational for the people of Pakistan not to plunge into a state of euphoric ecstasy upon hearing the prime minister’s latest pronouncement, of “directing the interior ministry to prepare a plan to de-weaponise society”. Years of false promises, sleeping pills, cliches and slogans have created an aura of suspicion and cynicism. Good news is considered either ‘motivated’ or accepted with great reluctance, even when some of it happens to be true. What should we think of the latest statement by the prime minister? How many sacrifices and lives are needed to make our rulers understand that it is their duty to protect the life and property of every citizen? This task cannot be sublet to private militias. Citizens Against Weapons, a group dedicated to a weapon-free and peaceful Pakistan, demands complete withdrawal of all weapons from every citizen, regardless of an individual’s rank, status or affiliation. The right way for the prime minister to demonstrate his sincerity is to surrender his own weapons and ask his ministers and party to do the same.
Naeem Sadiq
Published in The Express Tribune, August 28th, 2015.
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