NA committee asks Rehman Malik for facts

Standing committee on interior asks Malik for information on the presence of foreign security personnel in Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s standing committee on interior has asked the interior ministry for information on the presence of foreign security personnel in Pakistan and the agreements under which they are operating.

The committee met on Monday and members expressed dissatisfaction over the assurances given by Minister of State for Interior Tasneem Qureshi and Additional Interior Secretary Asif Nawaz Warraich that Blackwater wasn’t operating in the country.

Members also expressed serious concern over lawlessness and target killings in Karachi and were infuriated over the absence of the director-general of Sindh Rangers who was supposed to attend the meeting to brief the members on Karachi’s situation. The members decided to meet in Karachi on October 27 where they would separately meet senior officials from the rangers, police and Sindh home ministry.

Some committee members said that there were reports that suspicious armed foreigners were freely moving in the country, even in Islamabad, and asked the ministry to submit details about the identification and authorisation under which they were operating.

Qureshi admitted that some foreign embassies had hired the services of private security agencies but categorically rejected the presence of Blackwater, saying that there were no such reports from the Intelligence Bureau or the Inter-Services Intelligence.

Committee chairperson Abdul Qadir Patel and the members disagreed with Qureshi and observed that armed foreigners, who were travelling in tinted-glass vehicles, had been arrested and released within hours.

Published in the Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2010.