Firearms in Pakistan has always remained at the forefront of speculation after every 4-5 years, remaining at the behest of the new incoming government and their plans for the country. With each governmental change, predictions go off the roof as to what the future holds for firearms in the country leaving distributors, wholesalers and retailers scratching their heads over what to plan for the year ahead.
The year 2022 in Pakistan took an unfortunate turn for the firearms marketplace leaving all its stakeholders in despair as their 4-5 year action plan got swept off in the wake of a governmental regime change in just the 3rd year of the current government rule as the newly formed coalition government brought along with it a long list of ban on imported items which unfortunately included Firearms and its accessories.
This unforeseen move created havoc in the market leading to cut down in supplies from distributers and wholesalers which eventually provided a domino effect in the retail market where prices went off the charts.
The rippling effect instigated chaos in the buyers too as the very same evening of the announcement a stream of buyers could be seen filling up the stores to make purchases as soon as possible before their favorite brands slip beyond their reach. Amidst all this surge in demand in the market, retailers could be witnessed ringing up buyers who had previously booked their weapons in the wait for their firearms license to show up and provide full payments or risk losing their bookings.
Fast forward 2 months, all the chaos in the market has dried up and all that is left now are a few select buyers, exorbitant prices and ongoing speculation as to when the import ban gets lifted.
The ongoing unrest and unpredictable political scenario has left the stakeholders in the marketplace scratching their heads as to what the future holds. The current political change has brought with it a cloud of doubt which has forced all the shop owners to run on a day to day strategy of how to effectively and efficiently make use of their stock with zero insight on the timeline at which they will be able to replenish it.
This unpredictability has sparked a negative feeling amongst the buyers for the retailers as they tend to believe that the prices have been hiked unfairly by shop owners to make most of the ban and earn huge profits over previously stocked items without looking at other side of the story that this ban has actually hampered the sales numbers of each and every retailer.
As time passes on, sale numbers keep declining as sellers keep a lock on their stock and buyers stay in wait for the prices to fall back, there seems to be no indication as to when the ban gets lifted and market comes back to its natural flow.
"The hope in this race against time of imports ban is that history does not repeat itself again this time around for the Pakistani Firearms market."