July 15, 2003	Tuesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 14, 1424

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KARACHI, July 14: The Sindh government is making a formal request to the federal interior ministry by Thursday to extend by one more year the period of deployment of the 23,000-strong rangers force in the province.

After showing some initial hesitancy, the Muttahida-dominated coalition government has finally initiated the exercise of approaching Islamabad with a request to keep rangers in aid of the Sindh government for another year.

A senior official of the Sindh Home Department confirmed that a case had already been prepared and a draft proposal would soon be sent to the Sindh chief minister, who would make a formal request to the interior ministry before the deadline expires on July 17.

“This is a routine annual exercise and a mere ritual,” the official said, pointing out that successive Sindh governments in the last several years had been doing so.

But this time, with the MQM dominating the coalition, there was some hesitation on this score. Since the MQM’s formation and its coming into prominence in 1986, the relationship between it and the paramilitary forces has been an uneasy one. The MQM accused police and rangers on many occasions in the last 12 years of carrying out extra-judicial killings of its activists. The law enforcement agencies on their part have often accused the MQM of targeting their personnel.

This reporter had approached Sindh government adviser on home affairs Aftab Sheikh about three weeks ago to obtain information on the rangers. Mr Sheikh asked for a written questionnaire, which was immediately given. But since then, the adviser has neither provided answers to the questions submitted nor has he responded to telephone calls.

In the meantime, Mr Sheikh is reported to have received a detailed presentation by the rangers when he was said to have given favourable remarks on the briefing.

Out of the 23,000 men posted in the province, about 10,000 rangers are deployed in Karachi. They guard 40 consulates and many other important places and installations of strategic importance. Some 13,000 rangers operate in the interior of Sindh, patrolling the border with India and protecting foreign companies’ oil installations and gas explorations. Their job is also to maintain a vigil on the railway.

But the basic function of the rangers remains to respond to the call of the civilian administration as and when needed. “They tracked down the Muttahida activists with the same zeal and commitment as they performed security duty for demolition of the Baitul Hamza,” a bureaucrat associated with the present and many previous governments remarked. Baitul Hamza was the residence of Afaq Ahmed who is chief of the rival MQM.

Besides performing normal law and order duty, the rangers have taken over the responsibility of water distribution through tankers in the city. They offer three types of water distribution services. First, is a free service for the less privileged communities. The second is for individuals for which a fee is charged to meet the cost. The third is to meet the industrial and commercial demand for water on which rangers make money to meet the charges incurred on their free service.

The rangers also have fishing rights in a few lakes and for sea shores in the interior of Sindh. “This is for security reasons only,” an official explained. But the rangers’ control over fishing in the interior of Sindh has evoked a lot of anger among fishermen.

In a densely populated residential area of Karachi, the rangers also run a departmental store which is quite popular among housewives looking for goods at reasonable rates. The State Bank of Pakistan has vacated flats meant for its officers for the rangers.

They have become a permanent feature of Sindh’s law and order set up since 1991. While successive governments have been making annual requests to extend the period of deployment year by year, no one has come out with a definite plan about the rangers’ presence in the province.

The wages of all personnel are paid by the federal government, but the cost of petrol and communication is borne by the provincial government. In the last 12 years, the Sindh government is understood to have spent more than Rs6 billion on this account.

The police force has also been expanded and it now numbers close to 100,000. In the last 15 years, a rough estimate shows that the total expenditure on law and order in Sindh has been more than Rs50 billion.

But the number of registered crime cases has increased from 43,000 in 1999 to over 50,000 at present.