Don’t fire into 2025

New Year’s Eve is almost upon us and countries around the world are getting ready to celebrate. While this occasion and related celebrations do not get much formal support in Pakistan in the way they do, for instance, in the West, that does not stop people from having their own fun. Unfortunately, for a tiny minority, ‘fun’ involves firing bullets in the sky to express their joy, totally unperturbed about where and on who the bullets will land. Sadly, this behaviour can be observed in almost every ‘joyous’ occasion in Pakistan from weddings and cricket match victories to more public celebrations like your favourite leader winning an election and Independence Day. New Year’s Eve is no exception. Every year, this occasion sees scores of people get injured or killed in celebratory firing despite the authorities’ taking different measures. At least 65 people were arrested across Karachi for aerial firing that wounded around 30 people, including women and children, during Last year’s New Year’s Eve celebrations. In anticipation of the oncoming chaos this year, Section 144 has been imposed Karachi-wide for two days – December 31 and January 1 – banning aerial firing, use of firecrackers and carrying firearms.

Similar measures were taken in 2023 too, including warnings from the police that those caught aerial firing would be charged with attempted murder and pleas from prominent political figures for people to prioritise safety during New Year celebrations. They did not stop people from firing away then and it is not clear why this time will be different, even though one hopes that it somehow will be. In fact, it is rather strange for police and other authorities to plead with people not to start firing guns into the air considering that they are such a dangerous weapon. Why do so many people have access to such weapons to the point that they become a threat to the lives of anyone around them at the wrong place and time? The whole issue of aerial firing points to a larger problem of unregulated sale and use of firearms across the country.

This is a problem the country’s authorities are now belatedly trying to address. Police in Punjab arrested 9,445 individuals for possessing illegal firearms, 194 for displaying weapons and 536 for aerial firing this year, excluding the ongoing month. The Punjab government is also working to make the possession of illegal arms a non-bailable offence for the first time in the province’s history. In Sindh, a 90-day ban was placed on the public display of firearms earlier this month, except by law-enforcement agencies and private security guards. Sadly, laws and bans and their enforcement are two very separate things in Pakistan. And the fact that firearm use has been so poorly regulated for so long means that it will take some time to restore order. Until then, we can only plead with those who have guns to not fire them into the night sky thinking they will not hurt anyone, no matter how much they might want to.