WHAT OTHERS SAY
BAN ON AUTOMATIC WEAPONS
G un markets In Pakistan’s tribal AREAS HAD BEEN looded with Kalashnikovs with the onset of the Afghan jihad in the 1980s. In a matter of a few years, other Automatic military GRADE weapons like M-16s AND MP5S Also BECAME easily available at these markets. In the absence of effective gun control regulations, the following years saw rapid spread of these weapons across the country — from militant wings of political parties to criminal gangs, SECTARIAN outits AND, more recently, Islamist militias HAVE All BENEITED from his deregulated market of arms and ammunition. It wasn’t until the 2014 terrorist attack at the Army Public School (APS) of Peshawar that the political leadership started noticing the need for stricter gun control measures. WHEN PRIME Minister SHAHID KHAQAN ABBASI took OFICE EARLIER this year, he vowed to take action against ‘private militias’, stating that ‘there is not a single country in the world that allows the licensing of Automatic riles to Citizens’. Finally, A DIRECTIVE was Issued By THE Interior Ministry last week Announcing A BAN on possession of Automatic irearms By INDIVIDUAL Citizens. THE owners of Automatic irearms HAVE BEEN ASKED to get their weapons exchanged for semi-automatic varieties or receive a compensation of Rs 50,000. Gun owners have been given two months to GET THEIR irearms EXCHANGED. The Daily Times
FAKE ENCOUNTERS
T he Pakistani police culture of ‘encounter’ is being severely threatened by an unlikely source: the necessity and the popular urge to capture neighbourhood and city activity on CCTV and mobile-phone cameras. Such footage has exposed the policemen involved in staged encounters. This month, footage from a bystander brought the horrendous practice Into GREATER public Focus. It showed A police OFICIAL In FAISALABAD pumping bullets into the visibly surrendered body of a man. The police version of THE INCIDENT was that THE victim, ASIF SARDAR, HAD ired At A motorcycle squad of the Gulberg police when he and his ‘accomplice’ were signalled to stop. Now An Autopsy report Conirms HE “was shot multiple times At point-blank range”. A four-member committee formed on the orders of the PUNJAB CHIEF minister AND HEADED By THE SHEIKHUPURA regional police oficer is probing the matter. Few, however, think that the recommendations put forth by this team are going to lead to any revolutionary steps towards preventing the law enforcers from resorting to this ugly method of self-righteously dispensing justice and punishing those they deem guilty. To begin with, over time the trigger-happy police have assigned to themselves a mission that not only provides them with instant results and satisfaction but that also appears to be a cover-up for their overall INEFICIENCY. THEN THE system that sets A policeman — ALBEIT of senior rank — to CATCH A policeman Is Inherently LAWED. In such CASES, THERE has to be timely intervention by an authority outside the police force to take up allegations of fake encounters. The Dawn