Daily Times

I was immensely surprised to learn that the Sindh government has issued a notification, imposed a ban on the manufacture, sale, purchase, use and display of toy guns and pistols. The ban will be in effect across Sindh.

One cannot be dismissive of the fact that these toys do carry a potential of physical as well as psychological hazards for children; the initiative should be welcomed. But, what seems like a sheer irony is the fact that real weapons that remain exempted from any such ban.

Open and public usage of weapons has been putting so many lives at risk, even of those who carry it.

The grave situation necessitates the concrete and result-oriented measures to be taken to curb the use and display of real weapons.

Whether it is New Year’s Eve, Independence Day, or smaller celebrations such as weddings or the electoral victory of a favourite candidate, celebratory gunfire is extremely rampant in the Sindh province.

One cannot be dismissive of the fact that these toys do carry a potential of physical as well as psychological hazards for children; the initiative should be welcomed. But, what seems like a sheer irony is the fact that real weapons are still relatively easy to access

The fact is that aerial firing is deadly practice because bullets fired into the air do not undamagingly float down to earth. Shockingly, many, especially children, have fallen prey to the brutal tradition of aerial firing. Many have been killed and injured by stray bullets. Though the perilous practice of aerial firing made on the mentioned occasions has been switching off the light of many people’s lives, the Sindh government is doing nothing to control this demoralising custom.

The crystal clear fact is that the mainstream culture of Sindh is based on the principles of co-existence, peace, harmony, mutual sympathy and love. The people of different religions, sects, tribes and castes have established intimate and peaceful relationships among one another and have set-up the tradition of mutual participation in joyful and sorrowful events.

The undeniable fact is that not unlike in other regions in the country and in the world, some criminals exist and a few people are at logger-heads with one another in rural Sindh. But most of the dramas and Tele-films, broadcasted by Sindhi channels like KTN, Kashish and Sindh TV, representing Sindh’s society as the society of dacoits, killers and terrorists, display sophisticated weapons such as riffles, guns and pistols in almost every scene plenteously. The programmes pose deleterious impacts on cultural norms and social values and also interrupt the healthy grooming of children.

The display of lethal weapons leaves the damaging imprints on the vulnerable and susceptible minds of children. Trained by the dramas and Tele-films, children take toy weapons in their hands and play roles of dacoits, terrorists and police. The Sindhi channels should not be allowed to air such kind of dramas.

In the infringement of Article 256 of the constitution of Pakistan, which forbids the unregistered private armies in the country, and the National Action Plan, which terms public display of weapons and employment of personal security guards an illegal practice, there are hundreds of private armies which the rich and influential have kept for themselves in whole Sindh. Most of the politicians especially MPAs, MNAs and ministers keep a huge number of unregistered private security guards equipped with lethal and sophisticated weapons. With objective to intimidate and terrorise their political rivals and voters, they have always been seen travelling with a small force of 15 to 20 private guards sitting in the rear side of their double cabin vigoes, who carry the latest and most dangerous weapons with themselves and make display of firearms at almost all public places.

The heart-rending and deadly tribal clashes are common phenomenon in Sindh. The disputes initiated on trivial matters become bloody ones and last for many years. In the recent history of Sindh, a gigantic number of the conflicts have occurred among various tribes, which have engulfed a huge number of lives of innocent people of the disputant tribes and have affected education of children of war-torn regions very badly.

It is pertinent to mention here regrettably that it is the easy availability of almost all kinds of weapons, which makes the tribal conflicts more deadly and devastating. Moreover, the use of high-powered weapons, arms and bombs in terrorist incidents, target killings, honour killings and other kinds of damaging incidents have led to cutting short innocent lives in the province.

Sindh’s people, a great majority of them say no to weapons, expect the Sindh government to bring to a standstill the production, import, sale , use and display in any form of all kinds of real guns and pistols regardless of their legal standing through effective legislation and effective implementation of existing laws.

The writer is an academic, and can be reached on Twitter @ARShykh

Published in Daily Times, March 13^th 2018.