Karachi: Record 15,000 licences for fire arms issued to PPP workers

[Naveed Yaseen]

AAMIR MAJEED
KARACHI (April 22 2009): Sindh home department has issued as many as 15,000 licences for fire arms to Pakistan People's Party loyalists from Sindh Home Minister's quota only, violating its own directives against issuance of licences for maintaining peace in the province.

It is the highest number of arms licences issued by the provincial home department to party workers from home ministry in a short span of a year to arms political activists to teeth, a source at Sindh Home Department (SHD) told Business Recorder on Tuesday.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah approved the summary on August 11, 2008, which was submitted by Home Minister Sindh Dr Zulfiqar Mirza, to lift the ban on the issuance of licences for possessing fire arms. Prior to the imposition of the ban, the Sindh Home Department had issued as many as 85,000 licences in the past five years.

After the lifting of ban, a large number of political workers of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) visited the department for the issuance of arms licences on home minister's quota, the source said, adding that an increase has been recorded in sales and purchase of arms from authorised dealers, which had now reached an alarming stage," he said.

According to the source, a large number of people have been visiting the department with applications in their hands, which are approved by Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza. "A race has started amongst the activists of different political parties in the province for possessing licensed arms," he said. The source said it seemed that the home department had suddenly turned into a licence-issuing factory for legal arms. He said: "Now it has become a routine matter that the department would receive a list of successful candidates recommended by Dr Mirza".

He said a number of people from interior Sindh also visited the department. These people, the source added, carried with them the letters from the MNAs and MPAs of their respective areas. "Most of the licence forms, which were received by the department, made claims for providing security to the MNAs and MPAs of the area concerned," the source said.

The source said: "The department has issued licences to private security guards of many MPAs and MNAs of Sindh owing to prevailing law and order situation in the province, but many of them are not strictly using their licensed weapons for the purpose mentioned in application forms".

"Many fire arms acquired through licences are used for confronting political rivals," the source said. The source showed reservations over the issuance of arms licence to the political workers and expressed a fear the process would drastically disturb balance of power in the province.

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