KARACHI, July 20 Moves are afoot at the official level to formally enhance the powers of the paramilitary Rangers' force through amending relevant sections of the Criminal Procedure Code and Section 13-D of the Pakistan Arms Ordinance, 1965, in order to allow the force to search for and arrest suspects without seeking assistance of the police, it has reliably been learnt.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik had announced last week - after attending a high-level meeting on the law and order situation in Karachi - to enhance the powers of the Rangers in order to carry out search operations along with the police under the supervision of a DIG as one of the preventive steps to check the recent spree of targeted killings in the city.

This was the second time in less than three months that the Rangers had to be called out to assist the civil administration to control targeted killings in addition to the force's internal security duties.

After the killing of more than 50 people in April 2009, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had to rush to Karachi where he endorsed the decisions taken by the provincial government to grant additional powers to the Rangers through amending certain laws.

Regarding the suspects who were arrested and handed over to the police in the wake of the April killings, the fate of the investigations into the violence remains unknown reportedly due to the politicisation of the police.

However, before the amendments in the required laws can be carried out, the preoccupation of the government with other matters and disagreement among the coalition partners over granting a permanent role to the Rangers has to be sorted out.

The Rangers, according to informed sources, apprehend that performing search operations would become futile if the police personnel - due to their political links - leaked out information about their movements.

Likewise, handing over accused persons to the police and the subsequent investigation process could also be affected due to the political links of the police, making the entire exercise of nabbing miscreants and producing them in court for due punishment meaningless, insiders commented.

In this backdrop, sources said, the Rangers had asked for due powers so that whenever called in to assist the civil administration, they could discharge their duty without police assistance.

The services of the Rangers have been required in Sindh quite often, particularly to manage the law and order situation whenever it spirals out of the control of civil law enforcement agencies.

The force has been called in whenever violence escalates due to rivalries between supporters of different political parties, and also when mafias become active and start fighting over land-grabbing and collection of extortion money from traders and businessmen.

The Rangers were introduced in Sindh for the first time in 1942 when the Thar Rangers was raised as the Sindh Police Rifle[s]. In 1948 the unit was re-designated as the Sindh Police Rangers. In 1956, this unit was again re-named as Indus Rangers.

Due to the deteriorating law and order situation in Sindh, Mehran Force headquarters was established in Karachi in 1989 to deal with the situation.

In 1995, the Pakistan Rangers was bifurcated into Punjab Rangers and Sindh Rangers. Mehran Force was merged into Sindh Rangers, which is government by the Ranger's Ordinance 1959 and operates under the control of the ministry of interior and the Army's HQ 5 Corps.

Since its inception, besides operational duties on the international border with India, the Rangers have been involved in combating terrorism and providing support to the Sindh Police in Karachi and the interior of the province.