An extension in the deployment of the Rangers in Karachi for 30 more days is not entirely an unexpected development. According to media reports, the decision was taken after former President Asif Zardari made a phone call to Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah from Dubai asking him to extend the stay of the Rangers. The chronology is important. Things were more or less fine till the operation was confined to militancy. But temperatures began to rise once the interior ministry, apparently backed by the military, began looking into corruption and found how deep it ran in the official provincial machinery. The fallout of the Nine-Zero raid was instructive, but not nearly as much as the PPP co-chairman’s uncharacteristic chest-thumping. Subsequent frenzy, especially the party’s frantic firefighting, also spoke volumes. Therefore, when Zardari said from Dubai that civil-military relations were ‘in the larger interest of the country’ and there was a need to ‘strengthen them’, there was obvious and deliberate posturing also at play. The extension in the presence of the paramilitary forces in Karachi was inevitable, as the federal and military leadership has reached a consensus on purging the largest city of the country of all kinds of crimes and terrorist activities. It is also a clear message to all that any act aimed at destabilising peace in the port city will not be tolerated.Corruption of the kind that the paramilitary force has now turned its attention to falls more in the domain of white-collar crime, and while the latter may have an undesirable knock-on effect it cannot in itself be defined as terrorism.And it was to act against terrorism in Karachi that the Rangers’ powers were enhanced.That said, it does not mean that corruption in high places and abuse of power should not be investigated and prosecuted.The Sindh government — even in a country where patronage-based politics is the norm — is largely seen as the most brazenly self-serving and corrupt of the provincial dispensations.The corollary to this is a thoroughly politicised police force that has been fashioned to serve the rulers rather than the ruled. Whether the Rangers will stay beyond the month is a question that now seemingly rests with the Sindh Assembly.The bill for it has already been moved by a PTI lawmaker. The PPP-MQM nexus has the numbers to defeat such a bill. However, another extension can possibly be given too – under similar pressure.It is a shame that this issue will not be discussed on its merits: the efficacy of the Rangers, their compatibility with the Karachi police and the needs of the city.
pk.shafaqna.com
