It has been revealed that thousands of licenses for prohibited weapons have been issued by the Ministry of Interior over the past five and a half years of last three governments. A total of 50,966 arms licenses were issued during the last governments of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM), and caretaker premier Anwaarul Haq Kakar's tenure. Among these, 23,557 licenses were for prohibited weapons, and 27,409 were for non-prohibited weapons, the sources said. During the caretaker government, a total of 12,621 licenses were issued in which 9,561 licenses of prohibited weapons and 3,060 licenses of non-prohibited weapons were included. In the previous coalition government of PDM's tenure, a total of 23,052 arms licenses were issued. This included 13,340 licenses for prohibited weapons and 9,712 for non-prohibited weapons, sources said. The sources also disclosed that under the PTI government, a total of 15,293 arms licenses were issued. Among these, 656 licenses were for prohibited weapons, and 14,637 licenses were for non-prohibited weapons.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan