While waves of targeted killings wreak havoc on countless citizens of Karachi, the Sindh Home Department has been issuing thousands of weapons licences, Pakistan Today has learnt. Sources said that the Home Department has issued over 27,000 licences between January and May this year. These licences were issued on the quota of the Home Minister, the Home Secretary, the Members Provincial Assembly (MPAs), and other high-ups in the government and its allied parties.
|Over 80 percent of the licences were issued to activists of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Awami National Party (ANP).
The issue of abolishing weapons from the city has been frequently discussed in the provincial assemblies, but no concrete measures have been taken to deal with this menace thus far.
According to the figures, the Home Department had issued 83,000 arms licences last year, which is the highest number of licences issued in a year in the history of the country.
Official figures reveal that the previous government had issued over 85,000 licences between 2002 and 2007, but almost as many licences were issued by the current government during the last year alone.
Sources said that senior officials in the Home Department are working as puppets of the political parties of the country.
“Political leaders usually send a list of hundreds of activists to an official of the Home Department and the activists are then able to receive their licences in a few days,” the sources added.
They said that none of the officials of the Home Department have the courage to raise an objection against the list provided by political leaders.
It is a fact that there is no proper policy on arms and licensing, which results in no computerised records of the issued licences, they added.
Sources said that there is no way of keeping a check on distribution, purchase or manufacturing of arms and ammunition, making it easy for people to get hold of illegal weapons.
Even weapons that are seized from suspects are not recorded according to a proper system, the sources added.
It is pertinent to mention here that Karachi has faced over 17 waves of targeted killings in the last three years, claiming the lives of over 4,000 citizens. In the latest wave of targeted killings, over 30 people were killed in just three days.
Political analysts are of the view that the rapid issuance of weapons licences to political activists might initiate an arms race in the province. According to police sources, besides legal weapons, huge caches of weapons are also smuggled to the province.
