THE local weapons manufacturing industry has been over the years well established in Small Industrial Estate (SIE), Peshawar. Factory owners have put in place laser engraving machines, but sadly the weapons produced there are merely good imitations for display purposes. The reliability and accuracy of these locally-manufactured weapons are questionable. At times, these weapons barely work.

One wonders why the relevant ministry has never steppedin to help these gunmakers in producing quality weapons of internationalstandards.

An original Austrian or American Glock-19 or 17 costs about Rs400,000, while the clones produced in Peshawar are available at one-tenth of this price without offering one-tenth of the value.

They jam frequently and one needs almost a weekly visit to the gunsmith to have the weapon fixed. Besides, rust on the weapon is not uncommon.

Other than the looks and finish that are almost as impressive as the real ones initially, the local weapons are highly unreliable because of poor metallurgy, substandard barrel and firing pin. It is time we produced weapons like Turkiye does. It has acquired good machinery from Europe and produces world-class pistols like Canik, Sars11maz, etc. Some of the brands were also used at the recent Olympics.

We need to help the local gunsmiths in producing quality weapons so that they may not waste their time and energy in producing cheap clones that barely meet internationalstandards ofpistols, such as Glock, Beretta, Brno, CZ, etc.

By encouraging our gunsmiths, we will not only save foreign currency, but will also earn it by exporting world-class weapons.

Azhar Hussain Lahore