THE nation has earlier gone through the deweaponisation exercise three times in the past two decades.

Each time it proved to be merely eyewash, to fool the masses into thinking that the issue was of concern to the government and that a serious effort was being initiated to tackle it.

The current exercise under way in Karachi should be seen as a simple plan to launch an aggressive operation against all illegal weapons, their possession and proliferation by upholding the rule of law and not a concerted ‘deweaponisation drive’.

Just as we should not require a political mandate to go after extortionists, bhatta and land mafias, murderers and target killers, etc (which we sadly do), similarly, possession of unlicensed weapons is in the very first place illegal, hence we should not need any special drives or mandate to cleanse the city of illicit weapons.

It distresses me to see the sort of legislators we have elected over the years and the sort of criminal justice system we have woven together in our young history. Sadly, there does not exist any effective national policy regarding the licensing of arms dealers and the issuance of arms licences under stringent and well-defined criteria, detailing who should qualify to possess arms.

The Sindh Arms Act, 2013, also fails to address or restrict this growing menace and needs to be revisited and made tougher. On the contrary, an uncontrolled licensing policy is being used as a political tool by allowing politicians to sanction arms licences for a price.

I fully agree with the editorial published in this newspaper on Sept 28, in which it was suggested that there is also need for an effort to find out and crack down on the sources of arms supply and to arrest those involved in gunrunning. As a member of the Ministry of Interior’s focal group in 2000, I had fully endorsed this as one of the main issues needing resolution for any effective deweaponisation strategy.

Despite the 2001 campaign being one of the most successful of all the earlier campaigns, when issuance, sale and also carrying of all weapons was banned for nearly two years, only a total of 124,000 weapons, mostly old, obsolete and discarded arms, were surrendered from the entire country while it was under way.

The process of re-registration of weapons with the deputy commissioners and police stations was mandatory and widely publicised. Computerised records were to be developed, including that of the arms dealers, the weapons and ammunition sold and in stock. This is essential for forensics matching as even licensed weapons, which go unchecked, can be used for commission of crimes.

Unfortunately, despite my suggestions such as offering a buy-back scheme of surrendered weapons perhaps through the issuance of government interest-bearing bonds instead of cash, withdrawal of cases in petty crimes or disputes for those surrendering weapons, while offering rewards to informers to infuse fear amongst possessors of illegal weapons of being exposed, these proposals were not considered.

The weapons so bought could be used by the law enforcement agencies subsequently. The result then (as it is now) was clear; no one would be foolish enough to identify himself to the police as a possessor of an illegal weapon. He would rather dump it in the sea if scared or hide it somewhere in the wilderness.

Also, to ensure that those involved in the weapons manufacture trade continue to earn a livelihood, they should be given incentives for the manufacture of high-class handmade weapons under the supervision of the army at Wah. This would encourage business opportunities and earn foreign exchange, while discouraging the illegal trade.

Unfortunately even now, after over a decade, we are once again talking of deweaponisation in Sindh and the computerisation of merely five years’ record of arms sold. Besides the above, as a first step in Sindh we also need to initiate the following proposals at the provincial level, some of which could also be replicated at the national level.

There should be a submission of reports on previous plans, the steps taken and results of earlier deweaponisation drives from provincial governments, including the response and the number of surrendered weapons in each scheme, to help prepare an effective plan.

Re-registration and verification of all arms licences should be followed by the issuance of new arms licence cards with tamper-proof security features issued only by Nadra and dispatched directly to the original CNIC holder.

There needs to be a total ban on the display of arms by civilians other than by guards of licensed security companies.

There must be a reclassification of weapons to prohibited bore category in line with manufacturers of new types of equally lethal weapons.

There should be a stringent policy to restrict the jurisdiction of licensed weapons ie from one province to another, as well as for carrying outside the areas other than the district of issuance.

The provincial home departments must check the names of persons tried for criminal offences and those convicted, to cancel the arms licences of all such individuals.

The cancellation process of arms licences and criminal proceedings should be clearly defined, publicised and displayed, and unwarranted use of arms in marriages and festivities needs to be checked.

Nadra should be tasked with the maintaining and sharing of the national computerised data on all future issuance of arms licences and sales.

The recommendations of the feasibility report on the arms manufacturing industries of Darra Adam Khel and the Pakistan Ordnance Factory, Wah Cantonment, of Sept 1999 must be implemented.

So, let us not get fooled once again. By seeking the assistance and cooperation of the judiciary we must review the laws/prosecution/trial process of arms cases, in order to have a deterrent effect on displaying and carrying weapons. Extended night-time hearings of anti-terrorism courts must also be initiated for speedy convictions of those arrested in the ongoing operations for possessing illegal weapons, if we seriously want to successfully deweaponise society.

The writer is former chief of the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee.