Fighting without ‘fact-ics’

Three fundamental questions could have drastically cut down the size and duration of Pakistan’s war against crime and terror. ‘Who owns’, ‘how many weapons’ and ‘where do they come from’.
Sanity dictated that we sought answers to these questions much before taking a serious plunge. We not only failed to identify these facts but also continued to dole out millions of additional gun licences.
Little can be said in defence of a country that is engaged on the one hand in distributing gun licences and on the other fighting a war with the same militants.
While the state remains engaged in its favourite pastime of distributing gun licences, a citizen took upon himself to discover how Pakistani civilians managed to acquire 18 million guns. Falling back on a legal instrument called the citizens’ ‘right to information’ (RTI) he started to send out formal requests to all four provinces seeking information on licences issued. It was also a perfect opportunity to evaluate the efficacy of Article 19A of the constitution and the ‘right to information’ legislation in the four provinces.
In March 2015, using the respective provincial RTI laws, the four provincial governments were asked to provide specific information about the number of prohibited and non-prohibited bore gun licences issued by them in the last seven years. These requests were addressed to the home secretary of each province. One had no idea that the requests would deliver less in terms of information and more in terms of exposing the dysfunctionality of the entire RTI process.
Sadly all four provinces not only failed to provide the requested information but also did not bother to respond or even acknowledge the request. Such blatant delinquency on the part of the four home secretaries sums up the competence and the capability of our senior government officials. Clearly the provinces either did not have the records or were trying to hide the information – or both. None of the home secretaries were held accountable for violating the citizens’ ‘Right to Information’ as stipulated by the constitution of Pakistan.
After waiting for two and a half months recourse was made to the next higher level by sending an appeal to the information commissioner/ombudsman of each province. This resulted in notices being sent to all four provinces. Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan decided to totally ignore the notices and four months down the road have still not provided the requested information. Perhaps they fully understand the toothless and the ceremonial character of these appellate bodies.
One must give credit to the persistence of the KP information commissioner who kept chasing the home ministry till it finally delivered the requested information – some 130 days after the initial request. Sadly you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. The KP home ministry stated that it had issued 409,641 non-prohibited-bore licences and zero prohibited-bore gun licences since 2008. The falsehood was promptly refuted by the Young Doctors Association, which confirmed that at least 500 doctors had availed Kalashnikov licences during this period. (‘A shot in the arms’, Herald, April 2015)
After receiving zero response from the three provinces and partial response from one, it was decided to look for alternate sources to obtain this vital information. The Supreme Court in its suo-motu case 16/2011 had concluded that the federal ministry of interior had issued 1.2 million gun licences in the previous five years.
The Punjab government admitted to having issued 1.8 million gun licences of which it had no record for 900,000 licences. The Sindh government admitted to having issued 1.05 million licenses of which 600,000 licences had no traceability (as if others did have.) The KP government continues to dole out licences at an immodest average of 80,000 licences per year and has so far issued 3.5 million gun licences. The number of licences issued by the Balochistan government could be anybody’s guess, as the province does not believe in parting with any information.
The data thus collected presents a morbid and insane scenario. Of the 18 million weapons in the hands of civilians, at least eight million have been facilitated by the government of Pakistan – through its generous scheme of ‘licenced’ bribes.
The real militants of Pakistan are those who issued these licences. Should they not be incarcerated for doing more damage to Pakistan than all the TTPs put together? Protracted wars have never benefited any nation. The state must rethink on how to cut down the size and duration of this war. A few lessons from Sun Tzu on ‘subduing the enemy without fighting’ could be of great help.
The only option for Pakistan is to proactively cancel all gun licences and demand an unqualified surrender of every weapon of every shape, size and bore.
The writer is a management systems consultant and a freelance writer on social issues. Email: naeemsadiq@gmail.com