Law and order: Rangers hailed for peace efforts in Karachi

Karachi corps commander briefed on Ramazan security

KARACHI:

Karachi’s corps commander paid what appeared to be a morale-boosting visit to the Rangers headquarters in the city amid tensions touched off by PPP co-chairman’s recent outburst against the military generals and his aides’ criticism of the paramilitary force, even as the ruling party of Sindh seemed slipping further into difficulty as an anti-terrorism court heard that 70% of the black money was siphoned off to the Bilawal House.

Karachi Corps Commander Lt-Gen Naveed Mukhtar appreciated the efforts of the Rangers for restoring law and order in Karachi.

During his visit to the Rangers Sindh headquarters in the metropolitan city, Lt-Gen Mukhtar was briefed on the overall law and order situation. Issues related to the ongoing crackdown on criminals among other matters were also discussed.

The corps commander was also briefed on the security arrangements made for the holy month of Ramazan that starts on Friday (today).

He was received by Rangers Sindh Director-General Maj-Gen Bilal Akbar on his arrival at the Rangers HQ. They laid floral wreaths on the memorial of the fallen soldiers of the paramilitary force and offered Fateha.

Fishermen’s society

Sultan Qamar Siddiqui, the vice-chairman of the Fishermen’s Cooperative Society (FCS), was remanded to Rangers’ custody for 90 days. He was brought to an anti-terrorism court amid tight security.

Rangers’ counsel told the court that the accused was booked for extortion, targeted killings, corruption, arms smuggling, and aiding and abetting terrorists.

He said the accused had admitted that 70% of the black money was forwarded to the Bilawal House, adding that his brother was involved in the Safoora carnage. Siddiqui had been arrested from Gulistan-e-Jauhar a day earlier.

Meanwhile, according to sources, Rangers raided the office of the FCS and detained two more directors, Rana Shahid and Muhammad Khan Chachar. They are accused of corruption, ghost employment and usurping money. The Rangers spokesman, however, refused to confirm the report.

Education officials

Malir Magistrate Muhammad Ali Memon granted physical remand of seven officials of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation’s education department to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) until June 22.

The FIA had arrested director Mansoor Mirza, former director Muhammad Amin, deputy director Raziuddin, assistant director Muhammad Mazhar, clerk Hasan Ahmed, Naveed James and bank officer Aleem Qadri over suspicions of opening bank accounts of ghost employees and transferring tens of millions of rupees in salaries and other benefits to these accounts.

Mumtaz Ali Zardari

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested former Sajawal town municipal officer Mumtaz Ali Zardari on charges of embezzlement of more than Rs100 million.

According to the NAB investigation, Zardari misused his authority to draw many cheques and paid huge sums to phony contractors. He is also said to have paid ghost employees and engage in fake purchases. NAB said all the development schemes were limited to documents only.

Muhammad Ali Sheikh

Law enforcers arrested one Muhammad Ali Sheikh from the Karachi airport and shifted him to an undisclosed location for questioning. None of the law enforcement agencies confirmed the arrest.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, June 19^th, 2015.