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| India-Pakistan |
| Parliamentarians' penchant for weapons discussed |
| 2013-10-28 |
| [Dawn] The notion that Pakistain's is the most violent parliament in the world was mooted by an expert at a seminar on deweaponisation in society, raising eyebrows among participants many of whom were affiliated with political parties but none argued against it on Saturday. "Some 69,473 prohibited bore licences have been issued to the members of the National Assembly in the past five years, averaging over 300 lethal licences per peace-loving MNA," said Naeem Sadiq, an independent expert, during his presentation at a seminar held to discuss the importance of deweaponsation in Pak society. The seminar was organised by the National Organisation of Working Communities (Now-communities) at a hotel on Saturday. Mr Sadiq said no one actually knew how massively Pak society was infested with weaponry. However, a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... he banked on some independent figures putting around 20 million weapons in a nation of 180 million -- meaning every ninth Pak had a gun. Of the 20 million, the government has issued licences to a staggering seven million people to keep weapons; the rest carries guns without government permits. He did not speak about Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , but recent reports suggest the city is awash with some two million weapons. "The Pakistain government is the single largest promoter of weapons. The federal government issued 46,114 licences of prohibited bore and 1,202,470 licences of non-prohibited bore in the past five years. The Sindh government admitted to issuing another 400,000 gun licences," he said. He said Article 256 of the constitution forbade formation of any private army -- licenced or otherwise. However, a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... he claimed that at least 1,000 private armies consisting of five to 2,000 gunnies were already operating in the country. "Monopoly over violence now rests with the mafias not with the state institutions," he remarked. He discussed at length the prohibition of firearms elsewhere in the world and said Japan awarded 10-year imprisonment to anyone found holding a gun. He called it a myth that a licensed weapon was legal and said more than half of the licences were fraudulently issued and a shocking 70 per cent of the licencees had not paid mandatory taxes. In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... , some 3.5 million licences had been issued, which were not traceable in records. Speakers discussed the arms laws which had been promulgated for over a century, but had little effect on society, particularly after the Afghan conflict spread and messed up Pak society. Salahuddin Gandapur, a member of the Supreme Court Bar Association, said the first arms control law was introduced by the British in 1877, which provided for Rs50 fine and three years sentences, which remained in effect till 1965 when the Pakistain Arms Ordinance was promulgated with about a similar sentence. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 I would think knowing your opposite number in a debate was well armed would make the debate more civil. That would be a great idea...give every Congressman an AK-47 and 400 rounds of ammo before they start the debate on the budget... Should be fun to watch. |
| Posted by: Bill Clinton 2013-10-28 10:01 |