Points for Public Interest petition against Ministry of Interior’s

notification to ban all legal automatic weapons.

Summary:

1. Ministry of Interior has summarily banned all nearly 90,000 legal licensed automatic
weapons from law abiding citizens without citing any reason in a time when the country
is facing a state of deadly urban war and terrorism for the last 17 years where over a
100,000 Pakistanis have died or have been wounded in urban terrorism and the threat is
real, alive & increasing.

2. The Government has given just 35 days, till January 31, 2018, to the 90 thousand legal
weapons holders to get these weapons converted to Semi-auto weapons OR “sell” them
to the Govt for a paltry sum of Rs: 50,000/= each, else the license will get cancelled &
weapon will become illegal subject to action against license holder.

3. This order is not just illegal & unconstitutional, it is also impossible to implement on
technical, logistical and legal grounds.

4. The order is impractical, utterly malafide & would only create utter chaos, confusion &
fear in the society & in all law abiding high risk citizens who had been legally armed with
automatic weapons due to high threat to their lives, property, families and honor.

5. The said order is also dangerous for the country as law abiding legally armed citizens are
a second line of defense for the country behind armed forces. At a time, when enemies
are threatening to physically invade/attack Pakistan in 2018, disarming the entire 90,000
citizens would be a national disaster. Seeing the state of other countries like Syria, Iraq,
Libya and Yemen, it is clear that enemies are bringing wars to Muslim countries & all
citizens need to stand behind their armed forces in this new 5th Generation urban wars.

6. It is requested that Court should immediately strike down this

illegal/unconstitutional/impossible to implement order and prevent the Govt from
threatening, blackmailing & intimidating the legally armed citizens. Till the matter is
pending in Court, a stay order may be issued immediately to prevent the Govt from
harassing or initiating legal actions against legal weapon holders of automatic weapons
after January 31, 2018.
 Main Argument:

Political Reasons:

1. Country is in a state of war for the last 17 years. Pakistan has given over 100,000 dead
and wounded, mostly civilians, in a new generation of terrorism where wars are fought
within cities, within schools, within markets and within homes. After the APS slaughter,
even the school teachers were given special training to use arms and allowed to carry
weapons into schools.

2. All over the country, Army is using armed citizens, “aman lashkars”, to take help from
legally armed patriotic citizens to fight the urban terrorism. This war which is imposed
against Pakistan is called 5th Generation War, and is most deadly, devastating &
designed to implode a state from within. Examples of other Muslim countries like Syria,
Iraq, Libya & Yemen should suffice here which have been turned into rubble and
millions killed or displaced already.

3. In Pakistan, almost two million people had to leave the settled valley of Swat so that Pak
army could fight this war in the urban centers. This is the nature of new warfare – it is
fought within the civilians, in cities.

4. Example of Karachi is also glaring, where urban war has killed over 100,000 people in
the last 25 years alone. Forces have recovered and continue to recover even anti-
aircraft guns, rocket propelled grenades, heavy machine guns and all sorts of landmines
and bombs from these urban terrorists in Karachi.

5. It must be noted that NO terrorism or urban war takes place against the country or the
army from legal, licensed weapons. Terrorists and urban insurgents DO NOT use legal
weapons. Taking away legal weapons from the armed citizens WILL NOT reduce
terrorism or urban war in the country at all in fact; it will only expose high risk civilians
to more slaughter at the hands of heavily armed urban terrorists.

6. It is one of the strategies of the urban terrorists to assassinate/kidnap/attack all the high
profile important citizens of the society. Scholars, opinion makers, businessmen,
political or community leaders, traders, industrialists, law enforcement officers, media
anchors etc are particularly high risk targets. That is why such individuals have been
given special permits to carry/keep automatic weapons by the Govt for the last many
decades. It’s their constitutional right which cannot be taken away.
 7. The practice of issuing automatic weapons permit to special citizens is well established,
decades old, constitutional & accepted norm of the society more so in the present high
risk environment of today’s urban wars. These 90,000 or so legal holders of automatic
weapons have never waged a war against the State or the armed forces or involved in
urban terrorism. All licenses are issued by NADRA & their data are duly verified.

Legal/Technical/logistical reasons:

1. Automatic weapons are called “prohibited bore” weapons in law. According to Pakistani
law, these weapons or their parts cannot be imported by weapon dealers for public nor
they can be stocked in Gun shops nor is any gunsmith allowed to repair/convert
prohibited bore weapons. All PB weapons are “gifted” by tribal maliks to the permit
holder not “bought” from the Gun shops.

2. Entire Pakistan’s gun market, gun shops, gun dealers and gun smiths DO NOT have the
capacity, parts, technical expertise or even legal permission to convert 90,000 automatic
weapons into semi automatic and that too within 35 days. The task is technically
impossible, legally not allowed & logistically not possible. Pressurizing the entire 90,000
citizens to achieve this impossible task amounts to sheer threat, blackmail &
intimidation, so that all weapons can be confiscated in the end and all citizens disarmed
without any remedy to the security crisis.

3. According to law, 7.62/39, the bore of an AK47 rifle is considered prohibited bore
cartridge. Any weapon of this caliber 7.62/39 is prohibited bore, automatic or semi
automatic. So, when the Govt ask the citizens with automatic AK47s to convert their
rifles into Semi automatic, it is basically creating a legal dilemma – Converting a
prohibited bore automatic rifle into another prohibited bore semi automatic rifle!! The
Government has NOT removed 7.62/39 cartridge from the prohibited bore list, creating
this impossible legal dilemma. Even if the Ak47 rifles are converted to Semi-auto
somehow, the holder of the weapons would still be carrying a Prohibited bore illegal
weapon on a NPB license. Needless to say, it would be a legal comedy, an illegal act and
utterly unconstitutional.
 4. The Govt is offering to “buy back” these prohibited bore weapons for Rs: 50,000. This is
also a travesty. Minimum cost of an automatic weapon starts from Rs: 150,000 for an
imported weapon. Government’s offer to buy back at almost 1/3 the price would cause
huge financial loss to the citizens also for no fault of his own.

5. Since, no citizen is willing to “sell back” his weapon to the Govt and it is also impossible
logistically, technically and legally to get it converted to semi-auto before January 31,
almost the entire 90,000 legally armed high risk citizens now face the imminent risk of
losing their weapons under a completely illegal, insane, and unconstitutional &
technically impossible situation.

6. Those citizens who face imminent threats from the urban terrorists would be forced to
keep their weapons even after the deadline by the Govt, turning those law abiding
citizens into a law breakers and a criminals due to this utterly insane, illegal order of the
Govt.

7. This blackmailing and forced disarming of law abiding citizens is state terrorism by the
Govt which has resorted to abusing its State powers to humiliate, threaten, expose and
disarm patriotic citizens at a time when enemy is fighting an urban war within and
external enemies are knocking at the door to invade and attack Pakistan any time.

Prayer:

It is prayed that this order of the Govt to convert, sell or surrender all automatic weapons by
January 31st 2018 be declared null and void forthwith. Till the time the matter is in Court, a stay
order be issued against the Govt to prevent harassment, intimidation, blackmailing or 90,000 or
so legal permit holders of automatic weapons.

Any other relief court may find suitable…