Qaim orders fresh inquiry into ‘anti-Rangers’ ads controversy

Karachi
After giving his personal assurance that any misunderstanding would not be allowed to surface between the Sindh Police and Rangers, Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah on Thursday ordered a fresh probe into the controversial ‘anti-Rangers’ advertisements issued by a deputy superintendent of police.
The new inquiry committee, which includes a Rangers’ official, has been told to submit its findings within three days.
Soon after the chief minister had a tete-a-tete with Sindh Rangers’ Director-General Major General Bilal Akbar to discuss the controversial advertisements of missing persons said to have been arrested by ‘unidentified Rangers personnel”, the chief minister issued directives for carrying out a fresh inquiry by a new inquiry committee headed by Additional IG Karachi Mushtaq Mehar.
A day earlier, on orders from Sindh Inspector General of Police Ghulam Hyder Jamali, an inquiry committee headed by an officer of the DIG rank had been set up to probe the matter.
However, the new notification issued by the home department on Thursday called for the constitution of a four-member inquiry committee. It stated: “With the approval of the competent authority i.e. Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, a committee has been set up comprising the following: Additional IG Karachi Mushtaq Ali Mahar, Additional IG CTD Sanaullah Abbasi, DIG Traffic Ameer Shaikh and a representative of the Sindh Rangers not below the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.”
The committee will investigate how the six notices were published in local newspapers on October 6, 2015, and who was responsible for them, while also determining if it was done so with ulterior motives to create misunderstanding within the administration.
The notification has been signed by the additional chief secretary of home department, Mukhtar Hussain Soomro.
Meanwhile, at the meeting between the chief minister and Rangers DG, the former assured the head of paramilitary force in the province that any misunderstanding will not be allowed to develop between the two law-enforcement agencies.
The chief minister said such acts of misconduct could not be tolerated at all and assured the Rangers DG that a high-level inquiry had been ordered by into the whole affair.
He said the advertisements were part of an attempt to create differences between the Sindh Police and Rangers, however, he said these elements will soon be exposed.
He said together the Sindh Police and Rangers played a crucial role in maintaining law and order in the city and a conspiracy had been devised to damage the working relationship of both law-enforcement agencies.
The Sindh CM condemned and also expressed his anger over publication of newspaper advertisements by a DSP of Karachi police against Rangers.
A day earlier two police officers, an SP and a DSP, were suspended on account of this controversy. Before that, an official of the DIG rank had been leading an investigation into the controversial press advertisements in which Rangers had purportedly been blamed for whisking away certain missing persons in the city, whom the police were looking for on the complaints of their families.