Pakistan gets Rs50m export orders for hunting arms

[LahoreEstate]

Saturday, April 11, 2009
By our correspondent

PESHAWAR: After successfully displaying arms during an international exhibition, the Pakistan Hunting and Sporting Arms Development Company (PHSADC) has got export orders worth around Rs50 million.

Talking to The News, PHSADC Chairman Nauman Wazir informed they had received orders from 11 international companies for around 5,000 guns and pistols. The development came after the company displayed arms at international exhibition IWA held in Germany in March.

“We had made arrangements for display of guns produced by Pakistani artisans in the exhibition and got a positive response,” Wazir said, adding in the three-day fair, which was the second biggest in the world after Shot Show in Florida (US), about 25 to 30 companies showed interest in the products.

He went on to say 11 companies had placed orders for purchase of 5,000 to 6,000 guns and pistols manufactured by gunsmiths of Peshawar and Darra Adam Khel arms cluster. Negotiations, he added, with some other companies were still continuing and more orders may be received.

For delivery, he said, the PHSADC had started an exercise to assess the potential of registered arms dealers in Peshawar and Darra Adam Khel. He said the PHSADC had circulated a letter asking the arms dealers to inform about their production capability to the technical experts of the company.

After that, he said, the technical experts would visit the production units to confirm the capacity of the arms manufacturers. Orders would then be given to potential dealers for the production and export of arms as demanded by the international companies.

Wazir added the company would facilitate the arms dealers in the whole process of manufacturing and exports so that foreign exchange could be earned and the gunsmiths could prosper.

He said the PHSADC was working to tap the potential of crafts and skills of the gunsmiths by opening ways for exports to international companies.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=171774