LAST week I went to pick up my 16-year-old daughter from her tuition centre in an up-scale Clifton area.

As soon as the students started coming out, two brand new luxury cars arrived and parked right in front of my vehicle. Out came two bearded bodyguards armed with machine guns hanging from their shoulders and stood on the street.

As many children were coming out from the study centre, there was a lot of traffic and the vehicles caused a gridlock. The watchman asked the guards to move their vehicles but the drivers of both cars refused to budge.

Living in Karachi, I have often witnessed men with large-calibre guns acting as personal bodyguards everywhere. They often violate traffic signals, park their vehicles anywhere they please and drive like maniacs. The sight of their menacing firearms probably gives them the licence to behave like beasts.

As these bodyguards are in the pay of people who have almost unlimited money and influence, the police are also reluctant to enforce the law, and look the other way. Never in any civilised country have I ever seen weapons being carried with such aplomb as in Karachi.

The reason I have penned these lines is because I firmly believe that times are now changing and the country is heading towards a better tomorrow.

This is a request to the authorities to ban the open display of weapons. This should not be allowed in a civilised society.

Naveen Ahmad
Karachi

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2019