PESHAWAR: The district administrations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa issued 161,441 licences of non-prohibited bore weapons during the last around two years with the most given out in Bannu i.e. 66,000.

These statistics were revealed in documents submitted by the provincial home and tribal affairs department to the provincial assembly lately.

According to the figures, Bannu is followed by Peshawar with 11,642 licences of non-prohibited bore arms issued since May 2013, Kohat with 8,009 licences and Mardan with 7,721 licences.

Documents show 66,000 given out in Bannu, 11,642 in Peshawar

Chitral is at the bottom of the list with 213 such licences issued by the district administration.

The statistics show 6,452 licences of non-prohibited bore weapons have been issued in Swat since May 2013, 5,705 in Swabi, 5,584 in Karak, 5,380 in Lower Dir, 5,285 in Charsadda, 4,566 in Mansehra, 4,221 in Haripur, 3,679 in Lakki Marwat, 3,471 in Abbottabad, 3,218 in Malakand, 2,902 in Shangla, 2,883 in Buner, 2,836 in Dera Ismail Khan, 2,429 in Nowshera, 1,763 in Hangu, 1,541 in Batagram, 1,263 in Torghar, 1,103 in Kohistan and 970 in Upper Dir.

When contacted, Bannu deputy commissioner Mohammad Ayaz Khan said the issuance of 66,000 licences in the district during the last two years was astonishing.

“I doubt this figure. Let me check it because I don’t believe that licences would have been issued in such a large number,” he said.

The deputy commissioner said he’d banned the issuance of licences of non-prohibited bore arms many times since assuming the current office around two years ago as he lifted the ban at the repeated requests of licence seekers.

Sources in the Bannu district administration claimed around 10,000 applications for licences of non-prohibited bore arms were still pending with the relevant branch of the administration for approval.

They said the district administration requested the home department twice or thrice a year to let it issue more such licences whenever applications for them piled up.

The sources said after the approval of the home department, the deputy commissioner’s office issued arms licences.

Sources in the home department said every district, divisional headquarters and provincial capital had separate annual quota of non-prohibited bore arm licences.

They said the administration of Peshawar district could give out 9,600 such licences every year, divisional headquarters 3,600 and a district 2,400.

However, the documents submitted to the assembly revealed that Mardan, Kohat, Charsadda, Lower Dir, Bannu, Swabi and Karak districts had exceeded their respective licence quota.

According to them, Bannu district tops the list of districts violating such quota by issuing 58,800 more licences that the permissible ones during the last around two years.

It is followed by Swabi district with 905 such licences, Kohat 809, Karak 784, Lower Dir 580, Mardan 521 and Charsadda 485.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2015

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