As the elections near, activists of political parties are gearing up for a war in elections after getting thousands of arms licenses issued by the Sindh Home Department, it has been reliably learnt.
Dozens of political activists and other people have been in killed in general elections, conducted in 2002 and 2008. Thirteen people, including 11 activists of Jamaat-e-Islami and two of PPP were killed in by-election on May 12, 2004.
The political parties are looking to weaponise their activists as Sindh Home Department has issued more than 33,000 licenses in the first six months of the current year, sources said.
“These licenses were issued on the quota of home minister, home secretary, MPAs and other high ups of the government and its allied parties,” sources in the home department said.
More than 90 percent of the licenses were issued to the political workers of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Awami National Party (ANP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).
The issue of cleansing the city of weapons has been discussed frequently in recent months in assemblies, but so far no concrete measure or step has been taken to deal with the menace.
According to the figures, in 2010, the Sindh Home Department issued 83,000 arms licences, much more than those issued in the 62-year history of the country, while in 2011, more than 60,000 licenses were issued.
According to the government figures, the previous government in its five years issued more than 85,000 licenses during 2002 to 2007, but the same number of licenses was issued by the current government in 2010 alone.
The officers of the home department are working as puppets of the political parties, the sources said. “Normally, political leaders just send a list of hundreds of his activists to any of the official of the home department and receive the licenses in ready condition just after a few days, per his list,” sources said.
None of the officer of the home department has the courage to raise objection to the list provided by the political figures, due to the fear of job security, sources said. They said there was no proper policy on arms and licensing.
As a result, there is no way to keep a computerised record of licenses issued.
“There is no way to keep a check on distribution, purchase or manufacturing of arms and ammunition, making it easy for people to get hold of illegal weapons. Even the weapons seized from suspects are not recorded under a proper system,” they added. According to unofficial figures, Karachi has faced more than 23 waves of targeted killings in the last four years in which more than 6,873 persons have been killed.
Since the last five month, Karachi is facing bloodshed as 10 to 15 persons are being killed per day on average.
Political analysts are of the view that the rapid issuance of arms licences to political workers might ignite an arms race in the province.
