Unsupervised operation: ‘Neutral’ committee to monitor Rangers’ operation yet to be made

While some believe that the committee could have brought credibility, others find it of no use.

KARACHI: Almost a month has gone by since the paramilitary forces started the Karachi operation, yet the ‘neutral committee’ - comprising civil society activists, journalists and former bureaucrats - to oversee the Ranger’s activities is still in the making.

Last month, after the special cabinet meetings on Karachi’s law and order situation, Federal Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar had told the media that a neutral committee would be formed to monitor the targeted operation of the paramilitary forces, assuring that no action would be taken against innocent people.



Constitutional lawyer Farogh Naseem believes that if the neutral committee had been formed, it would have brought credibility to the operation. “There would have been no allegations of political victimisation if the committee was formed.”

Naseem, who was part of one of the two committees which were immediately formed for the operation, said that arrest and release of Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Nadeem Hashmi proved that he was falsely implicated. “False cases could have been avoided had the committee been in action.”

Human rights activist, Anis Haroon, who was the minister of human rights in the caretaker government, was of the opinion that such operations violate human rights, which is why a committee should have been formed immediately. “The watchdog can help address grievances of political parties who believe that they are being targeted and ensure that the operation was transparent. I don’t understand why the committee has not been formed,” she said while talking to The Express Tribune.

On the other hand, Sindh Advocate General Khalid Javed Khan sees no purpose in forming the committee. “What objective will the committee serve?  No forum except the courts can determine criminals and can denounce arrests,” Khan said, adding that it was up to the court to examine such cases and give verdict on the people being arrested in raids.

“Even if the committee was formed, it would not have taken any action or come up with its findings. It could have only registered complaints,” he said.

According to him, the operational and legal committees were formed because they had clear objectives, unlike this committee which seemed to have no objectives.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd, 2013.