May 23, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 17, 1429

KARACHI, May 22: The senate’s standing committee on interior has demanded that Rangers be moved from public buildings – including educational institutions in the city – and personnel of the paramilitary force be relocated to other residential facilities.

Members of the committee, which met top officials of the Sindh police and Rangers on Thursday, were convinced that a separate residential arrangement for the around 12,000-strong Rangers force based in Karachi, which has been occupying hostels of educational institutions and other public facilities for the last several years, is a must.

“We will soon put this matter before the authorities and ask them to arrange permanent residential facilities rather than keep them in hostels and colleges, which causes damage to the particular buildings’ utilities,” Senator Mohammad Talha Mahmood Aryan, chairman of the committee, told Dawn following a meeting with the director-general of the Rangers at Rangers Headquarters.

“The Rangers have their own compulsions for staying in such buildings as they don’t have any other option. But we are hopeful that these hurdles will be removed and we will ask the government to make arrangements to relocate these soldiers from public buildings.”

When it was pointed out that the proposal seemed to indicate that the Rangers would be making a permanent home in Karachi – the force was actually called in on a temporary basis in 1989 – the senator said the current policy of the government suggests measures along similar lines.

“Actually, there is no doubt that the Rangers have nothing to do with the maintenance of law and order, as the force is supposed to protect the border areas. But, unfortunately, the institution (police) which is mandated for such a task has failed to win the people’s trust in this regard,” he added.

“So, we are of the view that if the government really wants the Rangers to stay in Karachi, then it should provide all required facilities, including residence for its soldiers.”

The paramilitary force has been assisting the police in Karachi since 1989 when a Pakistan People’s Party government in the centre had called in the Rangers and the Frontier Constabulary to curb rising political violence in the metropolis.

Currently, the Rangers occupy different government buildings in the city for residential purposes, which include hostels of the University of Karachi and Jamia Millia Degree College in Malir.

In the last provincial budget (2006-07), expenditure estimates for the Rangers amounted to over Rs350 million. Even after almost two decades of the Rangers’ stay in the city, the committee appeared clueless about the future course of the government’s policy regarding the paramilitary force’s status in the city.

Earlier, the senate committee, which also included Senator Mohammad Amin Dadabhoy and Senator Saadia Abbasi, was briefed about the performance of the Rangers in the city and their role in the border areas of the country.

The committee chief pledged to take up the issues of the Rangers’ limited resources with the authorities concerned to equip the force with the latest technology to enhance its performance and output.

Police’s problems

Later in the day, the committee moved to the Central Police Office, where a meeting with Sindh Inspector-General of Police Dr Shoaib Suddle highlighted various problems the law-enforcers were facing while performing their duties.

“Our police force faces immense shortages of resources and we support their proposal for increased funds so that they can acquire due facilities for better performance,” said Senator Aryan.

He regretted that the majority of police stations remained unable to get fuel for mobile vans, which appeared to be the main hurdle affecting the force’s performance and damaging the morale of the policemen.

“It’s quite natural that if you expect someone to do a very sensitive and dangerous job without proving him basic resources, ultimately, it would affect the institution and not the individuals,” he added.