KARACHI: The Sindh government is likely to cancel more than 500,000 arms licences next week, as Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has ordered the home secretary to revoke all the manual licences which had not been revalidated despite several extensions in the deadlines during the past three years, it emerged on Friday.

Officials in the provincial government said the chief minister was informed that around 540,000 firearm licences had not been verified by their holders with the relevant offices.

The ministry said the deadlines for revalidation of the licences had been extended several times in the past, yet it attracted less than half of the total 1,057,456 licence holders to show up to the district administrations and the ministry to verify and get them verified.

“Cancel all those licences and put the details of their holders on the government website,” an official quoted the chief minister as asking the home secretary.

The officials said the home ministry was completing necessary formalities and was expected to cancel such licences next week. However, they said, the licence holders who were either out of the country or failed to show up because of certain medical reasons etc could still be entertained with special permission from senior authorities.

They said the previous government of Syed Qaim Ali Shah, too, had taken a decision last year to cancel around 600,000 such licences but later it changed the decision and extended the deadline once again.

Sources said a good number of licences had been verified while 100,000 were still pending with the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) and some 200,000 others were awaiting approval with the relevant deputy commissioners.

The officials said a circular would be issued to arms dealers, post offices and National Bank of Pakistan to consider the licences verified by Nadra valid for renewal.

The arms verification process was initiated in October 2013 on the directives of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, but deadlines for the verification of the licences have been repeatedly extended since then.

The government had earlier launched a de-weaponisation campaign three years ago that fetched dismal outcome and eventually put on the back burner.

The authorities then pinned hopes on the revalidation process of firearm licences but despite warning they issued from time to time they never went rough against those in possession of illegal weapons.

The firearm licences are being computerized using the biometrics technology of Nadra. Of the more than 100,000 licences issued in Karachi, more than 70pc of their holders applied for revalidation, but such percentage was low in other districts of Sindh, the officials said.

The campaign had been launched following the apex court directive to purge the city of weapons that experts believe is no less than two million.

A senior official said that the government did not go against those possessing illegal arms licences for it had already opened many frontiers in shape of targeted operations in Karachi earning criticism from rival political parties and its own inner circles.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2016