PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Wednesday sought comments from the interior ministry on two identical petitions filed by local lawyers against a federal government notification, which suspended the licences of prohibited bore weapons and asked licence holders to convert their weapons into non-automatic ones.

Justice Qalandar Ali Khan and Justice Mohammad Ayub Khan also directed the interior ministry not to take any adverse action against the petitioners, Sanaullah Khan and Taimur Khan, until further orders.

The bench directed the ministry to file comments on the petitions within a fortnight.

The petitioners have requested the court to declare the Dec 26 notification of the interior ministry illegal and unconstitutional saying under the current precarious law and order situation across the country, especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa adjoining tribal areas, the issuance of such orders amounted to endangering the lives of petitioners and other persons.

PHC stops govt from acting against lawyers who challenged suspension of such permits

Zahidullah Zahid, lawyer for the petitioners, said it was mentioned in the notification that the licences issued for prohibited bore weapons with the exception of those issued to the law- enforcement agencies and government organisations had been suspended.

He said such licence holders were directed to get their respective arms converted into non-automatic ones from the authorised armorers and arms manufacturers and dealers before verification by the relevant district police officers, deputy commissioners, district coordination officers, district magistrates or political agents by Jan 31, 2018.

The lawyer added that the order further stated that the licence holders should thereafter approach Nadra for the issuance of new non-prohibited bore licences for the converted weapons or deposit their automatic weapons with the respective officers at a compensation price of Rs50,000 per automatic rifle and Rs20,000 per automatic pistol or handgun.

He said the notification made it clear that the failure to comply with the directives would entail cancellation of licences. He said the series of sophisticated terrorist attacks and use of modern weaponry against innocent people and even schoolchildren were common and the people were vulnerable to such attacks.

The counsel said the strength of local police was far less than the international standard in comparison with the current population. He added that his clients were granted the Nadra computerised licences for the possession of 7.62 bore rifles for personal protection.

The counsel said the interior ministry had summarily suspended nearly 90,000 licensed automatic weapons issued to the law-abiding citizens without citing any reason at a time when the country had been facing a ‘state of urban war and terrorism’ for the last 17 years.

He said the petitioners as well as other licence holders didn’t get any show cause notice and that the government had unilaterally issued the notification for the suspension of licences.

The counsel said nobody could be deprived of his property without the due course of law.

He claimed that the act of the government had left a negative impact on the holder of legal arms and thus, encouraging the possession of illegal arms in the country.

Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2018