352,000 Pakistanis hold arms license issued by interior ministry in 1970s. Karachi, Peshawar, Lahore, Faisalabad among cities with maximum licenses.

41% of these licenses were issued by Interior ministry to the residents of Punjab. 20% to KP. 19% to Sindh and 20% to residents of Balochistan.

Mianwali is the district with most fake arms licenses followed by Bannu, Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Swabi and Islamabad.

Few politicians and known personalities are also named in the list, including the number of the prohibited and non-prohibited arms they possess.

Co-chairman of PPP, Asif Ali Zardari possesses more than 60 prohibited and non-prohibited guns. PTI chairman Imran Khan has no arm license for his personal security. Former Speaker of NA, Fehmida Mirza holds 25 prohibited and non-prohibited arms licenses.

PM Nawaz Sharif holds 13 arms licenses for his personal security.  Chief Ministers of Sindh, Punjab and KP hold no licenses. Faryal Talpur possess 7, PTI’s Jahangir Tareen holds six, MQM’s Farooq Sattar has 1, Abid Sher Ali holds five and Speaker NA, Ayaz Sadiq possess 2 licenses.

Senator Farhatullah Babar justified Asif Ali Zardari’s 67 licenses by saying that, as a chairman of a leading political party and husband of Shaheed Benazir Bhutto, there is no surprise that he holds so many licenses for his security.

Arif Alvi said that the reason why Imran Khan holds no license is because the latter believes that the state is responsible for the security of citizens’ lives.

By Muhammad Ammar.