Pakistan PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi bans automatic weapons

In a move to ban deadly firearms, Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has suspended licences for all the deadly automatic weapons in the country.

After assuming office in August, Abbasi delivered an inaugural speech in Parliament wherein he had promised that he would outlaw all deadly weapons.

The ministry through a notification on November 7 has suspended all automatic weapons, an official of interior ministry said.

All the owners of automatic weapons have been asked to swap the current firearms with semi-automatic ones or surrender them for Rs 50,000.

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“We have given the owners of automatic weapons the deadline of January 15, 2018 to surrender the weapons,” the official said.

Another official said the step has been taken as part of efforts to rid the country of the menace of dangerous weapons that end up in the hands of criminals and terrorists.

(With PTI inputs)

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