Rangers powers: Zardari calls legal aide to Dubai to discuss next move

Federal govt believes Sindh govt will lose if it moves top court

ISLAMABAD:

As the interior ministry yet again rejected the Sindh government’s request for conditional policing powers for the paramilitary Rangers in Karachi and issued a notification extending their authority under a previous arrangement, the co-chairman of the PPP, which rules the province, has summoned his legal adviser to Dubai for consultation.

The provincial administration has been wrangling with the federal government over the Rangers’ sphere of action in the commercial hub of the country since earlier this month, when the special powers granted to the paramilitary force to purge the city of criminals expired.



Sindh has been trying to persuade the Centre to honour the provincial assembly’s Dec 16 resolution which states that the Rangers will only take action in cases of targeted killing, extortion, kidnapping for ransom and sectarian killing. To place in preventive custody any person not directly involved in terrorism would require them to seek written approval from the chief minister. However, the federal government has not yielded to the demand.

The Ministry of Interior has issued a notification for extending the special policing powers of the Sindh Rangers for 60 days under a previous arrangement, following which Pakistan Peoples Party co-chief Asif Ali Zardari on Saturday summoned Senator Farooq H Naek to discuss the matter and devise the next course of action.

“On this day we condemn the dictatorial mindset that recently invaded Sindh in the name of law and order, in violation of all constitutional norms and principles,” Zardari was quoted as saying in a message issued on the eve of PPP leader Benazir Bhutto’s eighth death anniversary.



The interior ministry had empowered the Rangers and rejected the Sindh government’s conditions mentioned in the summary forwarded to the federal administration for issuing a relevant notification.



This was followed by a letter, in which the provincial government protested against the Centre directly providing a legal cover to the Sindh Rangers, against the wishes of the province.

The interior ministry rejected the letter as well, and issued a notification under Article 147 of the Constitution to restore all policing powers of the paramilitary force to carry out its targeted operation – which has been ongoing in Karachi since September 2013 – for another 60 days. The ministry has also asked the Sindh government to approach the Supreme Court if it has any reservations over the decision.

According to a source within the PPP, if the party decides to move the top court, then it can file a petition under Article 184(1), which states: “The Supreme Court shall, to the exclusion of every other court, have original jurisdiction in any dispute between any two or more governments.”

He said that under articles 142 (subject matter of federal and provincial laws) and 143 (inconsistency between federal and provincial laws), the PPP can move the apex court under Article 184(1).

However, a federal government official claimed that PPP’s case is weak, and if the party were to move the SC, then the Sindh Rangers just might get permanent legal cover to restore law and order in the city.



He said the top court’s 2011 ruling in a suo motu case on Karachi law and order clearly states that Articles 148 (obligation of provinces and federation) and 149 (directions to provinces in certain cases) bound the federal government to address the city’s poor law and order situation, especially when human lives and the economy are threatened.

He said that in the light of Karachi’s unsatisfactory law and order situation and the overwhelming demand of the city’s traders to allow the Rangers to continue their operation with special policing powers, if the PPP moves the apex court, the party would lose.

The only feasible option for the PPP-led Sindh government is to continue its working relationship with the empowered Sindh Rangers, he added.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, December 27^th, 2015.