PAC informed: ‘No Rangers operation in Karachi’

Interior secretary tells Public Accounts Committee that Rangers have only been given powers to improve law and order.

ISLAMABAD: Rangers are not conducting any operation in Karachi: they have just been given police powers for three months to improve the law and order situation, Interior Secretary Qamar Zaman Chaudhry told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly on Monday.

Answering a question raised by members of the committee, the interior secretary said that Rangers were working under the control of Sindh home department. The PAC met here under Leader of the Opposition Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan to review the interior ministry’s audit report for fiscal year 2008-09. An audit officer said that the project officer of Punjab Rangers had withdrawn Rs150 million from a bank account of the force without any authority and deposited the money in another bank. Moreover, profit accrued on the amount was also being unlawfully utilised.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th, 2011.