‘Weapons need to be off the streets as well as minds’

Karachi
Given that the National Action Plan has been in place in the country for almost a year, perhaps the most important session on the second day of the Beaconhouse School of Tomorrow conference on Sunday was “Is deweaponisation essential?”.
The panel on the topic featured academician and social activist Nuzhat Kidwai, journalist and former Karachi mayor Faheem Zaman and renowned columnist Naeem Sadiq. The session was moderated by Ayesha Tammy Haq.
Kidwai kicked off the session saying the use of weapons in conflicts exacerbated the crisis and intensified polarisation, as seen in the Afghan conflict during the peak of the war, the entire societal fabric of the neighbouring country had turned to its worst.
She said weapons were a hindrance for peace and development in any state and society of the world. “The worst aspect of it is that the children are used in illegal arms trade,” she added. “Our State needs to make schools safe.”
Kidwai said the State needed to stop issuing new weapon licences.
Zaman said the proliferation of weapons was mainly because of the lack of democracy and its norms in the society for last 20 or 30 years.
He added that weapons could be a need for a tribal society, but it should have no space on the streets of Lahore and Karachi.
“The display of weapons we see on our roads has little to do with security and protection, in fact it is a blatant feudal mindset which is responsible for it,” he said.
“The nexus of militarisation and religious extremism in the society has paved way for the easy access to arms.”
He believed that until and unless mindsets were not changed, no number of ordinances could prevent weaponisation.
Zaman said most people who genuinely deserved security were ironically those who could not afford to buy weapons worth thousands of rupees.
Lambasting the State’s role, he said that the infamous terrorist, Malik Ishaq, was issued 11,000 prohibited calibre weapons and according to Punjab’s interior ministry around 50 percent of weapons permits were fake.
He added that the Pakistani parliament was one of a kind of legislature which had regularised 68,000 prohibited calibre weapons.
Sadiq said in the past weapons were used for wars, but now wars were created to sell weapons. He added that the basic purpose of the war industry, which stands on huge money, was to manufacture fear.
He said interestingly in the area of Lucky Star, it was seen that at one end there was a business of life and death; as medical equipments were sold in the vicinity, along with a number of arms and ammunition shops.
“Anyone who says that guns make us secure is making profit on the expense of our children, he said. ”Sadly the most popular toys are toy guns, which are nothing but a sheer display of madness.”