ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights decided on Thursday to seek details from the government regarding ‘special powers’ reportedly given to the Rangers for restoration of peace and order in Karachi.

“We have decided that the chairman of the committee, Afrasiab Khattak, will soon write a letter to Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, seeking details of special powers given to the Rangers,” Senator Farhatullah Babar, a member of the committee, told Dawn.

He said the committee would ask the government to describe the nature of powers given to the Rangers to ensure that they would not violate the fundamental rights of the accused.

The committee, he said, wanted to know whether the powers of arrest and investigation had been transferred to the Rangers from police.

The federal and Sindh governments decided on Wednesday to give special powers to the Rangers to maintain peace and control the worst spate of targeted killings in the city.