Over half a million arms licenses issued by Interior Ministry

WEB DESK: The Ministry of Interior issued over 500,000 arms licenses during the tenure of past four governments, the Hum Investigation Team (HIT) recently learnt.

In the evidence available to investigation team, over 121,000 illegal arms licenses were issued to private citizens by the Interior Ministry.

The Interior Ministry has launched an investigation into the issuance of illegal firearms licenses following an order from the Supreme Court (SC).

Read more: Punjab govt hikes firearms licence fee by 2,000%

The records show that over 100,000 submachine guns (SMGs) licenses were issued exploiting various loopholes.

The firearm licenses were issued during the tenure of different governments, with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government responsible for 70,000 licenses and the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government issuing 40,000 licenses during their respective tenures.

During the last month of the PDM government, an additional 5,000 arms licenses were issued.

The remaining firearms licenses were issued under the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) governments.

During the investigation, it was uncovered that 21,000 of the firearms licenses were fake, and that there were no corresponding records for these licenses available with the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA).

The investigation further uncovered instances of licenses being granted to prominent political figures, with 37 licenses issued to the current President Asif Ali Zardari. Similarly, six firearm licenses were issued to Jahangir Khan Tareen, seven to Nawaz Sharif, and nine to Faryal Talpur.

Over 150 licenses were issued on the orders of federal ministers and senators, with 25 licenses specifically allocated to National Assembly (NA) member Fahmida Mirza and her spouse. Likewise, 24 illegal firearm licenses were issued on the directives of Senator Rubina Khalid.

Similarly, 18 firearm licenses were issued under the order of former NA member Noor Ul Hassan Tanvir, while Shahzain Bugti was revealed to have been granted eleven licenses, alongside other politicians and ordinary citizens.

Read more: US appeals court blocks California from banning guns

The Interior Ministry revealed that the revenue generated from firearms license fees surpassed Rs1 billion.

A spokesperson for the ministry announced that an investigation into the records of all issued firearms licenses is underway, with the report to be submitted to the Supreme Court “shortly.”