Politics of prohibited bore

Few appeasements entice a Pakistani politician more than a prohibited-bore weapon licence. Needless to say, the massive proliferation of these disgusting instruments of death is also a leading cause of the violence, intolerance and killings that define today’s Pakistan. The critical link between the politics of prohibited-bore weapons and militancy in Pakistan has been grossly and intentionally underemphasised.
All weapons perform the same function but prohibited bore weapons are a cut above the rest in their capacity to kill. They typically include automatic rifles, semi-automatic rifles greater than .22LR and hand guns greater than .45 caliber. Reduced to a layperson’s language, they should lie exclusively in the domain of the law-enforcement agencies – and ordinary citizens ought to have nothing to do with them. The issuance of prohibited-bore gun licences is therefore a sure way to promote formation of private armies – an act strictly prohibited by Article 256 of the constitution of Pakistan.
Licences for prohibited-bore weapons are issued primarily to those who wield power, wealth or influence in Pakistan. They are one of the most attractive and preferred mode of political bribe. One of the first tasks of a newly voted-in government is to issue prohibited-bore licences to allies, party members, friends and cronies.
The interior minister of state in the federal government that took over in 2008 issued 6000 prohibited bore licences in the first six months. Interestingly the last ritual before leaving government is to repeat this vulgarity. On his last day, just a few hours before leaving the PM House, the interim prime minister in 2013 approved five gun licences for himself and each of his outgoing cabinet ministers.
The prohibited-bore bribe continues unabashedly for as long as a government is in power. To keep the parliamentarians well lubricated, the prime minister in 2008 introduced an unprecedented quota of 25 licences per year of prohibited-bore and 20 licences per month of non-prohibited bore weapons for each member of the National Assembly and the Senate.
In addition he had a habit of approving prohibited bore licences for names scribbled on small scraps of papers which were frequently presented to him by various MNAs and senators. To understand the magnitude of these killer gifts, the PM had approved 22,541 such licences between March 2008 and June 2009.
Weapons have proven to be the least useful instruments of safety and protection. Although the honourable PM spent a good five years of his tenure in the pursuit of issuing and acquiring prohibited-bore licences, it regretfully did not prevent the unfortunate incident of his son’s kidnapping.
A country that daily witnesses brutal massacres of its children, citizens, policemen and minorities, and yet continues to dole out and proliferate dangerous weapons can only be considered intellectually challenged. In the last ten years the federal government issued 1.2 million gun licences. Not to be left behind, the Punjab government issued 1.8 million and the Sindh government issued 1.05 million gun licences.
Since most licences are given as bribes, there is hardly ever a need for background checks. Even Malik Ishaq of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi managed to receive 11 prohibited-bore gun licences. The Sindh government had to recently cancel more than half a million licences as no one turned up to claim ownership. The Punjab government formally announced in the assembly that half (0.9 million) of all its licences had no records and were not traceable to any individual. In simple words they were fake, forged or fraudulent.
‘Citizens against Weapons’, a citizens’ group working for a peaceful and weapon-free Pakistan, has recently urged all parliamentarians and law-enforcement agencies to agree to three basic deweaponisation demands. First, that no citizen, regardless of his/her rank or status, must be allowed to possess, carry or display any weapon of any kind – licensed or otherwise. Second, that all private armies and militias be disbanded as required by the constitution. And third, that all gun licences be declared cancelled, all weapons be surrendered and the law be amended to prohibit any individual from issuing any licence for any kind of weapon.
Pakistan will only keep sinking deeper into a quagmire of violence and militancy, unless it undertakes the essential task of eliminating all weapons and all private militias.
The deweaponisation of Pakistan must begin from its ‘peaceful’ parliamentarians (owners of 69,473 prohibited-bore licences) and the militant wings of political and religious parties. The rest of the ‘petty bourgeois’ will readily fall in line.
The writer is a management systems consultant and a freelance writer on social issues. Email: naeemsadiq@gmail.com