Rangers powers: Sindh, Centre stick to their guns
PM rejects key demands of CM; asks Nisar to visit Karachi
PM Nawaz meets Sindh CM Shah at the PM House. PHOTO: APP
ISLAMABAD:
A stalemate over the extension of the Rangers’ policing powers persists as the Sindh government and the Centre refuse to budge on their respective positions. A meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and their aides failed to work out a common ground on the issue on Wednesday.
The prime minister refused to entertain two key demands of the Sindh administration vis-à-vis the Rangers’ targeted operation in Karachi. Instead he directed the federal interior minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, to visit the city next week to ‘sort out’ the matter.
Officially, little was said about the meeting. But sources said Premier Nawaz categorically rejected two key demands of the Sindh chief minister and instead asked him for cooperation in the Karachi operation. Firstly, Shah sought an assurance from the prime minister that the Rangers would not arrest any political figure or members of the provincial cabinet on corruption charges. Secondly, he asked for a commitment that the paramilitary force would not raid any government office in future.
The chief minister also alleged that the law enforcement agencies were trying to influence the case against PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari’s close aide Dr Asim Hussain, who faces terrorism facilitation charges in the court. But the prime minister told Shah: “Let the court decide the case.”
The two sides, however, agreed that the interior minister would visit Karachi next week to hear out the Sindh administration. After the meeting Shah confirmed to the media that Nisar would visit Karachi to ‘sort out’ the issue of Rangers’ powers.
Premier Nawaz visited Karachi on Monday for a daylong trip. Though Chief Minister Shah received him at the airport but remained conspicuously absent from all official engagements of the prime minister because he was “not feeling well” and Nawaz advised him “to rest”.
Sources said the interior minister’s visit would be a face-saving for Shah’s administration as it has no option but to submit to the Rangers special powers. It would also send out a message to the provincial bureaucracy that the Centre stood by the provincial government.
The controversy started after the Sindh Assembly sought to clip the Rangers powers through a resolution on December 16. The federal government refused to accept the move. And subsequently, the interior ministry notified a 60-day extension in the Rangers powers, triggering an angry reaction from the provincial administration which called it an “invasion of Sindh”.
Sources said that the interior ministry’s notification has eroded the writ of the Sindh government over the bureaucracy, particularly of federal bureaucracy. And Nisar’s visit would give a message that the federal government stood by the provincial administration and that there was no bone of contention between the Centre and Sindh.
According to sources, Chief Minister Shah didn’t say a word about the interior ministry’s notification in Wednesday’s meeting. But he hinted that after 60 days the Rangers and the federal government would again need a letter from the Sindh government for extension in the paramilitary force’s powers.
Shah told reporters after the meeting that he has presented the provincial government’s reservations to the prime minister in a ‘cordial atmosphere’. He sought to defend the Sindh Assembly’s move to limit the Rangers’ powers as ‘reasonable’. The director general of Sindh Rangers and other officials of the paramilitary force had been verbally asked several times to consult the chief minister before arresting any political figure, he added.
An official at the Prime Minister House said that Wednesday’s meeting decided to solve all issues through dialogue. Premier Nawaz told Shah and his aides that the federal government had so far given Rs25 billion for the Karachi operation. “There will be no compromise on the operation,” he was quoted as saying.
Sensing the uncompromising tone of the prime minister, Shah and his aides decided to adopt the policy of wait and see, at least for 60 days, sources said. The Pakistan Peoples Party, which rules Sindh, has two options: to move the Supreme Court or ask the Centre to withdraw the Rangers. However, both the options do not seem feasible in the current circumstances.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 31st, 2015.
A stalemate over the extension of the Rangers’ policing powers persists as the Sindh government and the Centre refuse to budge on their respective positions. A meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and their aides failed to work out a common ground on the issue on Wednesday.
The prime minister refused to entertain two key demands of the Sindh administration vis-à-vis the Rangers’ targeted operation in Karachi. Instead he directed the federal interior minister, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, to visit the city next week to ‘sort out’ the matter.
Officially, little was said about the meeting. But sources said Premier Nawaz categorically rejected two key demands of the Sindh chief minister and instead asked him for cooperation in the Karachi operation. Firstly, Shah sought an assurance from the prime minister that the Rangers would not arrest any political figure or members of the provincial cabinet on corruption charges. Secondly, he asked for a commitment that the paramilitary force would not raid any government office in future.
The chief minister also alleged that the law enforcement agencies were trying to influence the case against PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari’s close aide Dr Asim Hussain, who faces terrorism facilitation charges in the court. But the prime minister told Shah: “Let the court decide the case.”
The two sides, however, agreed that the interior minister would visit Karachi next week to hear out the Sindh administration. After the meeting Shah confirmed to the media that Nisar would visit Karachi to ‘sort out’ the issue of Rangers’ powers.
Premier Nawaz visited Karachi on Monday for a daylong trip. Though Chief Minister Shah received him at the airport but remained conspicuously absent from all official engagements of the prime minister because he was “not feeling well” and Nawaz advised him “to rest”.
Sources said the interior minister’s visit would be a face-saving for Shah’s administration as it has no option but to submit to the Rangers special powers. It would also send out a message to the provincial bureaucracy that the Centre stood by the provincial government.
The controversy started after the Sindh Assembly sought to clip the Rangers powers through a resolution on December 16. The federal government refused to accept the move. And subsequently, the interior ministry notified a 60-day extension in the Rangers powers, triggering an angry reaction from the provincial administration which called it an “invasion of Sindh”.
Sources said that the interior ministry’s notification has eroded the writ of the Sindh government over the bureaucracy, particularly of federal bureaucracy. And Nisar’s visit would give a message that the federal government stood by the provincial administration and that there was no bone of contention between the Centre and Sindh.
According to sources, Chief Minister Shah didn’t say a word about the interior ministry’s notification in Wednesday’s meeting. But he hinted that after 60 days the Rangers and the federal government would again need a letter from the Sindh government for extension in the paramilitary force’s powers.
Shah told reporters after the meeting that he has presented the provincial government’s reservations to the prime minister in a ‘cordial atmosphere’. He sought to defend the Sindh Assembly’s move to limit the Rangers’ powers as ‘reasonable’. The director general of Sindh Rangers and other officials of the paramilitary force had been verbally asked several times to consult the chief minister before arresting any political figure, he added.
An official at the Prime Minister House said that Wednesday’s meeting decided to solve all issues through dialogue. Premier Nawaz told Shah and his aides that the federal government had so far given Rs25 billion for the Karachi operation. “There will be no compromise on the operation,” he was quoted as saying.
Sensing the uncompromising tone of the prime minister, Shah and his aides decided to adopt the policy of wait and see, at least for 60 days, sources said. The Pakistan Peoples Party, which rules Sindh, has two options: to move the Supreme Court or ask the Centre to withdraw the Rangers. However, both the options do not seem feasible in the current circumstances.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 31st, 2015.