ISLAMABAD: Members of the Senate Standing Committee on Industries and Production on Tuesday criticised various government functionaries for not promoting locally manufactured arms and opting for imports of arms instead.

A meeting of the committee presided over by Senator Hidayatullah noted that certain actions taken by the federal and provincial governments were causing promotion of illegal arms trade while suppressing the legal chain.

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“We have been taking actions against arms smuggling into Punjab and Sindh mainly Karachi, but still the supply exists as it is visible from the regular news reports,” Senator Hidayatullah said, adding that “this is possibly because we have closed the doors to the legal industry”.

He said this after the committee was informed that Punjab and Sindh governments had banned purchase of arms from local manufacturers.

Senator Taj Haider criticised what he called the directionless drive of containing the flow of illegal arms in the country, saying that authorities were confident of chocking the supply route of smuggled arms.

The committee noted that Pakistan was a huge market of imported arms and not only law-enforcement agencies, but also the general public was interest in buying imported arms.

Senator Hidayatullah stressed the need for the promotion of local arms manufacturers.

The committee was briefed by officials of Pakistan Hunting and Sports Arms Development Company (PHSADC) who said that restrictions and lack of official support were encouraging illegal arms manufacturers in remote parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata.

PHSDAC’s CEO Tahir Khattak informed the committee that the demand of weapons was on the rise and arms dealers in Punjab and Sindh had no other option but to ask suppliers to bring weapons from whatever source they could.

He said since there were restrictions on the licensed manufacturers, suppliers approached illegal arms factories to fulfil the demand.

The committee was informed that there were around 400 licensed arms manufacturers in the country. Most of them are in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and they were resettled at a small industrial estate in Peshawar in 2006 after the government wanted to abolish illegal arms production units in Darra Adam Khel.

“Some of pistols and shotguns made by local manufacturers have passed quality tests in the United States and the United Kingdom and there are regular small scale exports of these weapons, but despite meeting all standards law-enforcement agencies are not buying weapons from local manufacturers,” Mr Khattak said.

He told the committee that main arms produced by Pakistani companies were various models of 30 bore pistols (TT), 12 bore shotguns, 9mm pistols and 22 bore rifles.

He showed pictures of some pistols made by the Peshawar Arms Company that has been approved by US standards.

Senator Kulsoom Parveen suggested the PHSDAC to develop specialised units among factories to introduce the concept of mass production at low cost.

Meanwhile, speaking at another agenda item, the additional secretary of the Ministry of Industries criticised private members on the boards of state-owned entities for making personal gains by asking for vehicles and other favours.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2015

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