THE contentious relations between the Sindh Rangers and the Sindh government have once again deteriorated to the point of open rancour.

The chief minister, directly contradicting an assertion to the contrary by the DG Rangers a few days earlier, has said that the mandate of the paramilitary force’s policing powers extends only to Karachi and not to the rest of the province.

The latest skirmish between the two sides was triggered last week when the Rangers picked up Asad Kharal — said to be a close aide of a key Sindh cabinet member — in Larkana for allegedly facilitating hard-core criminals in the area. However, their attempt to interrogate him at a local police station was thwarted, they said, when certain influential individuals in the provincial government intervened in the proceedings.

Matters became even more fraught when the Larkana residence of the Sindh home minister was cordoned off by the Rangers the next day.

It can be argued that Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah’s stance is disingenuous, and calculated to limit the fallout of the Rangers’ operations on alleged transgressions by some members of the PPP government.

Even if restoring law and order to Karachi is the Rangers’ specific remit, to do so effectively necessitates disrupting criminal networks whose tentacles, in the form of abettors, facilitators, sanctuaries, etc may lie outside the metropolis.

After all, when circumstances require, the police can also pursue criminals in jurisdictions other than their own, provided certain protocols are followed.

Thus, to suggest that the Rangers treat Karachi as a self-contained silo is unrealistic. But the statement is also an attempt by the provincial government — a civilian power centre — to reassert its authority over its law and order function that is steadily being usurped by a federal force that, despite technically reporting to the interior ministry, in reality operates as an arm of the military from which its officer cadre is drawn.

Unfortunately, the Sindh government is reaping its long-sown harvest of treating the police as a handmaiden in its sins of omission and commission, instead of building even a moderately depoliticised, competent force that serves the people.

Consequently, the Rangers have by default acquired a certain ‘legitimacy’ in the eyes of the wider public — even while their footprint has expanded from their original mandate of tackling terrorism to investigating white-collar crime, a very different beast in many respects.

At the same time, one must also reiterate that this ‘legitimacy’ is unwarranted. The many instances of abuse of power by the Rangers, aside from the violation of human rights that they entail, have further exacerbated the ethnic divide in Karachi.

One must also remember that even during times when the establishment directly controlled the levers of power, it made little effort to improve the Sindh police. The truth is that it suits neither side for the police to be truly empowered.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2016