ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday issued written order regarding hearing on a case pertaining to the license of sub-machine guns and prohibited bores weapons.
In response to the question raised by the top court, Mr. Muhammad Saeed, who was then the Deputy Inspector General of Police (‘DIG’) of the Mardan Region stated ‘That the document in question (permit) was not issued’ by him. It seems that the Province was only interested to save the former DIG but not interested to ascertain who had issued the said document/permit, it said.
It said, ‘The population is left at the mercy of those publicly brandishing SMGs and other prohibited bore weapons and the police, the home departments of the provinces and the Ministry of Interior appear uninterested in keeping the people safe. In the area of virtually every market, marriage hall, school and even hospital there are SMGs on open display, including pickups with gun-toting men; the police look the other way and do not challenge when they are illegall
y double-parked.
A great sense of insecurity must undoubtedly be felt by the majority of the law abiding citizens, who are also intimidated by such offensive behaviour. This lawless state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue.
‘We are informed that licenses for prohibited bore weapons are issued ‘for the purpose of protection or sports’. With regard to whether any other document or permit allowing possessing and carrying prohibited bore weapons the Ministry of Interior skirts the query; it does not provide an answer’, it said.
The order said, ‘During the hearing we enquired how the police or the members of any other law enforcement agency would verify whether the license shown is genuine; we were shockingly told that there is no such mechanism in place. Therefore, even if the police wanted to verify whether a person is in legal possession of a nonprohibited bore weapon they would not be able to do so.’
It said, ‘The provinces have also filed their respective replies and state that they do not issue any
license or permit with regard to non-prohibited bore weapons and that the same are issued by the Federal Government.’
The Secretary Interior is directed to file a concise statement to the questions raised by the bench. It should also be stated whether there is any policy of the Federal Government with regard to firearms and their public display, and if there is such a policy in place how is it to be implemented and whether there is any prohibition on public display of weapons. In view of the seriousness of the matter let the Attorney-General for Pakistan personally attend to this matter.