Sindh Assembly to ratify powers in the current session. PHOTO: EXPRESS/FILE
The Sindh government Saturday extended the paramilitary Rangers’ policing powers for four more months under the Anti-Terrorism Act 2013. Their powers will be restricted to Karachi, where they shall be free to carry out investigations, conduct raids without the need of a warrant and detain suspects for 90 days.
On July 8, the provincial government had extended the policing powers of the paramilitary force for a month after expiration of the four-month extension.
Last month, a relevant bill was supposed to be passed in the Sindh Assembly, but this did not happen. According to several reports, the provincial administration has backtracked on its earlier announcement that it would debate the matter in the provincial legislature.
A spokesman for the Chief Minister House, however, refuted the reports and said: “The debate and subsequent passage of the bill will take place in the current session of the assembly.”
When the policing powers conferred upon the border security agency had expired on July 8, Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah had refused to extend them because, according to political observers, the Rangers had been raiding the provincial government’s offices and ‘victimising’ bureaucrats and leaders associated with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
Later, however, an understanding was reached between the PPP’s provincial administration and the paramilitary force, which resulted in an extension in the Rangers’ powers for a month.
“No raid will be conducted at any government office without first taking the chief minister and the provincial government into confidence,” a Sindh government official said referring to the understanding between the administration and the Rangers. “The government and the paramilitary force will coordinate with each other against criminals, terrorists, extortion suspects and the land mafia, etc.”
On reports regarding the issue of extension being dragged in the provincial legislature, the CM House spokesman said the powers delegated to the paramilitary force would now expire in December.
“Earlier, the Rangers used to be empowered through an executive order, but after the passage of the 18th constitutional amendment, legislation is mandatory to ratify the powers,” he said, adding that after the notification of extension was issued by the home department, the matter would be brought before the assembly.
“The house is currently in session, and the Rangers’ policing powers will be ratified within a few days,” said the spokesman. A ‘possible political showdown’ had apparently been averted last month after the Sindh government agreed to extend the Rangers’ policing powers for a month.
Chief Minister Shah had said the provincial administration, under the 18th constitutional amendment, was bound to seek the Sindh Assembly’s approval before allowing the paramilitary force to continue operating in Karachi under extended powers.
However, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had told him if Sindh did not send the requisition, the federal government would have to extend the Rangers’ stay for 24 hours.
The interior minister had assured Shah that the Rangers deployment was not about limiting authority of anybody or interference in the provincial autonomy.
Nisar had said if anybody had any misunderstandings about the Rangers’ mandate, it would be removed. He was critical of politicians’ statements about the paramilitary force which gave the impression that they were working outside the ambit of law and regulations. He had also warned against politicising the Rangers.
On Friday, Karachi Corps Commander Lt Gen Naveed Mukhtar had also tried to remove misconceptions about the Rangers’ role in the metropolitan city. He said the paramilitary force’s operation was not directed against any particular political party, adding that the Karachi operation was ‘entirely apolitical and indiscriminate’, and ‘free from any compromise or pressure’.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 9th, 2015.
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