Pakistan is evidently a very gun-friendly society. While presuming the Small Arms Survey may not have been able to find exact figures from Pakistan’s rural areas, where the possession of at least one firearm per capital would not be inappropriate assumption and also not accounting for the wide possession of assault rifles, a restricted item which is used and traded in abundance.The facts about Pakistan, as per the website GunPolicy.org, are alarming: We are placed sixth out of 178 countries, the number of citizens who keep private firearms. We are the third largest importer of firearms in the world. And it doesn’t just end there, only one out of 10 guns is licensed in Pakistan.The proliferation of small arms and light weapons is one of the major security challenges currently faced by Pakistan. The trafficking and varied availability of these weapons fuel communal conflict, political instability and pose a threat, not only to security, but also to viable development. According to the Red Cross, one out of every two casualties in a war is a civilian stuck in the crossfire. The easy use and light weight of small weapons have made the job of combatants easy, convincing even children to become militants. The widespread proliferation of small arms is contributing to alarming levels of armed conflicts and insurgencies. Pakistan is among those countries in which every passing year witnesses an increase in the proliferation of small arms. An unknown quantity of weapons, likely in the thousands, was diverted into the hands of Pakistani dealers and have today ended up in border arms bazaars, supplying militant sectarian groups, terrorists, drug cartels, criminals and those seeking protection from such groups. Although the Afghan situation exacerbated the small arms problem, a ‘gun culture’ has long existed in the northern frontier and the adjacent tribal areas. Therefore, in addition to the enduring weapons from the Cold War, areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have a long history of craft production of weapons. For example, gunsmiths in Darra Adam Khel, located just south of Peshawar, are thought to produce between 500 and 1,000 firearms daily. Darra is also home to the largest illegal gun market in Pakistan. A 2003 survey by SPADO found there were 1,200 shops selling guns in Darra Adam Khel alone. These were supplied by nearly 1,500 small workshops and more than 50 medium-scale manufacturing units employing over 6,000 gunsmiths. While some arms workshops in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are registered with the government, the infamous industry in FATA, including the main hubs of Darra Adam Khel, Bara and Jamrud, are unregistered. The rising sectarian, dogmatic orthodoxy coupled with easy access and unabated usage of firearms, besides instilling deep-rooted fears in the masses, brought Pakistan close to being labelled as a terrorist state. In presence of all these factors, De-weaponising Pakistan will not be easy. It will require planning, a strategy and passionate advocates. Fundamentally there can be no major change unless the government takes the first step and that first step is to strictly ban aerial firing at ceremonies, it would help to control the proliferation of fire arms.
pk.shafaqna.com
A gun-friendly society: proliferation weapons a major security challenge for Pakistan
