KARACHI, Oct 26: The notion that Pakistan’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 Pakistani 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 Pakistani society was infested with weaponry. However, he banked on some independent figures putting around 20 million weapons in a nation of 180 million — meaning every ninth Pakistani 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 Karachi, but recent reports suggest the city is awash with some two million weapons.

“The Pakistan 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, he claimed that at least 1,000 private armies consisting of five to 2,000 armed men 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, 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 Pakistani 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 Pakistan Arms Ordinance was promulgated with about a similar sentence.

Since then, several laws regarding arms and explosives had been introduced by the federal and provincial governments, most prominent of them was the 1991 arms and ammunition act, in which the owner of an illegal weapon would have to serve for life and got one’s properties confiscated.

The latest such law is the Sindh Arms Act, 2013, which provides for a sentence of up to 14 years of imprisonment to a gun holder with confiscation of one’s properties.

“Particularly during Gen Ziaul Haq’s regime, the Afghanistan situation introduced guns and drugs to Pakistani society, after which the situation has worsened to the extent that now we have bundles of laws, but none brings a respite in killings and rule of law in society,” he said.

Asad Iqbal Butt of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan called Pakistan the ‘worst trigger-happy’ nation since it came into being in 1947 and gave a historical perspective to substantiate his argument. “Pakistan’s army taught its people by frequently seizing power through its gun prowess that weapons make life convenient, which is why everyone wants to be armed,” he said.

He said around 40,000 illegal arms cases had been registered in Karachi in the past few years, which showed how many weapons were there in Karachi.

Speakers spoke on the growing gun culture among the political parties and some of them said militancy had weakened the country’s political culture.Representatives of various political parties also went in session to discuss the issue and largely consented for eradication of guns from society.

They agreed to play an effective role, particularly in Karachi, to offer a safe life to its citizens.

The Awami National Party’s Bashir Jan, Pakistan People’s Party’s Latif Mughal, Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Irum Farooque and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Samar Ali Khan represented their parties.

The Women Action Forum’s Anis Haroon also spoke. Farhat Perveen of the host organisation moderated the proceedings.