THE argument for an extension in the Rangers’ policing powers in Karachi is persuasive: terrorism-related crime in the city is down by 60pc in the two years or so that the Rangers-led operation has been under way.

A meeting in Karachi on Monday between the civil and military leaderships decided that the paramilitary force would continue with its action against criminals as well as their patrons and facilitators and resist all pressure to do otherwise.

The message between the lines, of course, was to the provincial political establishment — part of which is flush with a resounding victory in the LG polls — to desist from interfering in the Rangers’ operations.

Also read: Govt will not compromise on Karachi's law and order: PM Nawaz

The question is whether law and order in Karachi can be effectively tackled by the seemingly indefinite deployment of a paramilitary force.

Policing Karachi is certainly no straightforward task. The various fault lines in the 20-million strong metropolis have been exploited for years by competing political interests and their militant wings; waves of inward migration in recent years triggered by security operations up north have added another layer of complexity.

Meanwhile, politicisation of the police allowed the situation to drift further into anarchy. Much of this has happened on the Rangers’ watch: they have, after all, been ‘reinforcing’ the local police since the early 1990s.

However, it was in late 2013 that the Rangers acquired policing powers whereby they could detain suspects in their custody for three months and even take lethal action to prevent an imminent crime from being committed.

The federal paramilitary force thus has some justification to claim it has only recently been given the tools to circumvent local political interference. At the same time, not only has there been a sharp uptick in ‘encounter’ killings, but the expanded powers have been employed by the Rangers to widen the ambit of the operations at will; in the process, there have been some obvious transgressions involving questionable arrests and detentions.

While there may be reason enough to continue with the present arrangement at least for now, an open-ended Rangers’ presence in the city would be tantamount to treating the symptoms and not the malaise — a compromised police force that serves not the needs of the citizens but that of powerful vested interests.

Rather than the Rangers shoring up the police, the latter should be strengthened so that they can take ownership of the city and do their duty by it.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2015