KARACHI: MQM chief Altaf Hussain on Tuesday asked Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah and all members of the Sindh Assembly to pass a bill to “send back the oppressive Rangers.”

Talking to party office bearers via telephone from London, Hussain said:

“We will hold a sit-in at the Chief Minister House against the repressive actions, arbitrary arrests, torture, and extra-judicial killings by Rangers. If they open fire on the participants of the sit-in, the Rangers and their ‘captain’ will be responsible for the consequences.”

Interestingly, this demand by Hussain comes a day before Rangers’ special powers in Sindh are due to expire. While the duration of these special powers has been extended multiple times in the past, it is not clear whether the provincial government will go ahead with the move this time around.

Called in 1989 to assist the police in Karachi by the then PPP-led government amid a deteriorating law and order situation, the Rangers started enjoying more powers in 2009 — again extended by PPP-led governments both in the centre and the province, which allowed the force to search houses and arrest suspects without warrants.

However, the PPP government in Sindh appears aggressive after recent moves by the Rangers in Karachi. CM Qaim Ali Shah has, on numerous occasions, asked the paramilitary force and its director general to not ‘overstep authority.’

In his speech to party workers, the MQM chief also said Rangers issued a press release saying they would arrest MQM’s unit and sector in-charges because the MQM’s Tanzeemi Committee trained them in militancy.

“But there has been no Tanzeemi Committee in the MQM for quite some time now,” he remarked.

“Neither the chief minister nor the judiciary took notice of this statement by Rangers. Had the courts been free, they would have taken notice and sought an explanation over such illegal statements.”

The MQM chief regretted that rights organisations were silent on serious violations of human rights in Sindh, particularly in Karachi.

“International organisations should raise their voice on the injustices committed against Mohajirs, Sindhis, Balochs, and Pakhtuns in Pakistan.”

Condemning the federal government’s decision to grant additional powers to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Hussain warned Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that the agency will use the additional powers against him in future.

“We had opposed the setting up of special courts in the past by Nawaz Sharif. We had told him that these courts would be used against him but he did not listen. Eventually, it was a special court that passed a sentence against him.”

“We don’t need motorways and big development projects. We want Kashmir to be liberated. Rangers should be sent to free Kashmir.”