People have been left at the mercy of those waving prohibited arms freely : SC

ISLAMABAD (Online): Supreme Court (SC) has issued written order of its March 6 proceedings with reference to case against prohibited bore arms license.

The case was heard by a 3-member bench of SC presided over by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa.

It has been said in the order people were left at the mercy of those waving arms freely. Apparently police , provincial home departments and interior ministry don’t take interest in saving the lives of people. SMGs is seen openly in marriage halls, bazaars, schools and outside hospitals even. The law abiding citizens feel them unsafe due to display of arms. Might is right situation is created in this environment. It is stunning for us that police have no procedure to verify any arms.

The court sought reply from government through interior secretary it should be told that is it the policy of federal government that fire arms have to be put into display at public level Is there no restriction on displaying arms at public places.

The court issued notice to Attorney General.

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 illegally 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.”