KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah constituted a three-member task force on Saturday to examine the report given by Rangers about the alleged generation of terror-funding in the metropolis through unlawful means.
The committee comprising Justice (retd) Ghulam Sarwar Korai (as it’s chairman) and District and Session Judge (retd) Arjun Ram K. Talreja and Home Secretary Mukhtiar Hussain Soomro (as members) has been asked to submit its detailed assessment in four weeks’ time.
Earlier, in the meeting of Sindh apex committee on June 4, the Rangers had given a detailed presentation that terror financing was done through collection of extortion money, land grabbing, China cutting and smuggling of Iranian oil.
The chief minister, keeping in view the information given in that presentation, has constituted a three- member task force to examine the report.
The committee has been given the mandate to examine the report and evidences about various modes of terrorism financing provided by Rangers. It will then fix the responsibility in the light of its findings.
Following the recommendations, the committee will suggest pre-emptive, preventive and cognitive measures to Sindh government to curb any such unlawful practices.
Rangers had claimed that more than Rs230 billion are being generated annually from Karachiites through extortion, smuggling of Iranian diesel, water supply and land-grabbing, mainly patronised by “a major political party”, and that part of that huge amount was also being used for “terror-funding”, a decade-old gang warfare in Lyari and criminal activities across the city.
The claim from the paramilitary force came in a statement citing briefing by Rangers DG Major General Bilal Akbar to the June 4 meeting of the Sindh apex committee, which was chaired by Syed Qaim Ali Shah.
The paramilitary force said that with the operation against targeted killings and terrorism, “rooting out terror-funding network is also key to sustainable peace in Karachi”.
However, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leaders issued strong reactions to the Sindh Rangers' statements regarding the involvement of political parties in funding terror activities in the province.
MQM supremo Altaf Hussain said that the allegations regarding hides of sacrificial animals and Zakat by Sindh Rangers were "baseless and unfortunate".
Senior PPP leader Aitzaz Ahsan had questioned as to how the specific Rs230 billion figure was estimated. He said that the Rangers' statement does not specify the basis on which the amount was calculated.
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi questioned the course of action of the federal government in the wake of the claims made by Pakistan Rangers, Sindh.
