Daily Times

To restore the law and order situation, deter violence, to rid the society of the menace of terrorism and to safeguard the achievements made in military operations such as Zarb-e-Azab and Radd-ul-Fasaad, it is imperative to deweaponise Pakistan. This September, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, in his maiden address, had shown keenness to introduce laws to deweaponise the country but shockingly, he opted to adopt pin-drop silence on this issue after most of the members of his cabinet expressed reservations on the legislation. It would have been a judicious decision by PM Abbasi if he had given preference to national interests over the interests of a few party members. It seems that national interests have no importance in the eyes of our national political leadership.

The fact is that shooting incidents continue to claim countless lives in the country due to the availability of high-powered weapons that enable people to enact their dangerous impulses into mass killing sprees. The use of lethal weapons, arms and bombs in terrorist incidents, tribal clashes, target killings and other kinds of fatal incidents have led to the loss of innocent lives on a daily basis. However, our political leaders are yet to take this issue seriously. The federal government and provincial governments while knowing this fact well have been issuing arms licenses to citizens. A report revealed in 2015 said that the KP government had issued 3.5 million licenses and an official record of the issued licenses was missing. A Supreme Court suo moto proceeding had shown in 2011 that the then federal government had issued around 1,202,470 licenses, while the Sindh government issued 400,000 licenses in the last five years.

Police and Rangers should setup checkpoints on district, provincial and national borders to put a stop to the movement of illegal arms, weapons and ammunition

In the past, there had been various de-weaponisation drives for the voluntary surrender of illegal weapons in the country but sadly, the campaigns could not bring forth constructive or fruitful results. In the campaign, a small amount of mostly old, obsolete and discarded illicit weapons were surrendered. In the same way, in a 2013 drive, very few people turned in their illegal weapons. In Karachi, the provincial government had also sought support of mosques to encourage people to surrender their weapons but, disappointedly, the government failed to fetch an adequate number of arms. The reason was the lack of sincerity and interest of the government in the cause.

After Martin Bryant, a psychologically disturbed person, used a semiautomatic Armalite rifle and a semiautomatic SKS assault weapon, that killed 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania, Prime Minister John Howard, introduced a buyback plan for the country’s deweaponisation in 1996. To make the plan feasible, it was financed by the federal government. This had required new legislation and it was widely accepted across the country. Around 700,000 weapons were bought back and destroyed. Australia is a federation of states and the national government had no control over gun ownership, sale or use. However, although the deweaponisation task was herculean one, John Howard made it possible by persuading the states to enact uniform laws that completely prohibit the ownership, possession and sale of all automatic and semiautomatic weapons. Before the 1996 reforms, gun ownership in Australia was a lot higher and Australians had experienced countless gun massacres causing a massive loss of lives. The reforms not only reduced the gun-related homicide rate but also the suicide rate in the country. There has not been a single massacre since then.

Reportedly, the traders of the international black market smuggle illegal weapons, arms and ammunition from Afghanistan and other countries into Pakistan via Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. Their agents are actively involved in this business throughout the country. In some areas in the KP province, all kinds of weapons and ammunition are sold openly and cheaply. Moreover, in connivance with some black sheeps in the government machinery and with the help of agents of the international black market, people get licenses of illegal arms and weapons to legalise them.

Pakistan should opt for complete deweaponisation because the transportation, supply and availability of both legal and illegal weapons is a major problem in the country. For the recovery of legal weapons, the federal government should follow the precedence set by Australia. A buyback scheme should be introduced after enacting uniform laws to cancel all licenses of arms issued to citizens for keeping prohibited and non-prohibited weapons. For the recovery of illegal weapons, there is a need to launch a merciless deweaponisation drive because unauthorised production, illicit trafficking, possession and use of arms and weapons are severe criminal activities which deserve to be dealt with vigorously. To make the drive successful, police and Rangers should setup check posts on district, provincial and national borders to put a stop to the movement of illegal arms, weapons, and ammunition. Following this, house to house targeted search operations based on intelligence reports will be constructive and fruitful. In this way, no citizen can be affected by the merciless deweaponisation drive’s search operations. The merciless drive should be followed by the voluntary surrender campaign, in which the people should be given a four-week deadline to voluntarily surrender their unlicensed weapons.

With a policy that only law enforcement agencies should have weapons to provide people with security will assist in controlling criminal activities carried out in the country, that cost the lives of countless innocent people.

The writer is an academic at C&S Govt Degree College Shikarpur and tweets at @ARShykh

Published in Daily Times, December 20^th 2017.