PA to decide if Rangers will stay or go: Qaim

Karachi
A day after Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah termed the recent actions of the National Accountability Bureau and the Federal Investigation Agency as invasion of provincial jurisdiction, he raised another issue — that of the extended stay of Rangers in the province.
He said under the 18th amendment the government was bound to seek the approval of Sindh Assembly if it wished to allow the Rangers another extension to act against terrorists in the province.
“The Rangers were called in by the Sindh government many years ago and their stay here has been extended from time to time,” he said. “However, this time there is a bottleneck towards another extension in the stay of the paramilitary force. The government under the 18th amendment cannot extend the Rangers’ tenure on its own. The matter has to be taken to the assembly for approval.”
He said constitutional experts and the province’s own legal team had apprised the top governing officials that the Sindh Assembly was the competent authority for awarding extension to the Rangers to let them continue their operation.
“But the matter has to be taken to the assembly at least two months before putting it on the House’s agenda,” he said. “We are exploring means to award another extension to the Rangers but we have to negotiate with them first.”
The chief minister was talking to the media after distribution of compensation cheques among the families of victims of Safoora bus carnage on Tuesday.
He was accompanied by health minister Jam Mehtab Dahar, home minister Sohail Siyal, home Senator Dr Arif Khoja and Sindh police chief Ghulam Hyder Jamali.
Answering a question, the chief minister said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had launched the National Action Plan after taking all political forces into confidence. “There was a consensus that an operation would be started against four heinous crimes in Karachi: terrorism, target killing, kidnapping for ransom and extortion,” he said.
Talking about the actions taken against criminals and terrorists in Karachi, the chief minister said the sacrifices of Rangers and police personnel cannot be forgotten. “They have delivered under serious leadership of the army chief Raheel Sharif,” he said. “The army chief’s utmost personal interest in the matter is the reason for the positive and encouraging result, otherwise the Rangers have been present in Karachi and Sindh for many years.”
Referring to his remarks a day earlier about the FIA and NAB infringing upon the province’s domain, the chief minister said he had talked to federal interior minister Chaudhry Nisar on the telephone and had apprised him of all his reservations.
“He quite a capable and sensible statesman, and we had a candid conversation about our concerns,” he said.

Cheque distribution
Earlier, the chief minister in a modest ceremony distributed compensation cheques worth Rs500,000 to the family of each of the 45 people martyred in the Safoora Goth tragedy.
He also awarded cheques worth Rs200,000 to six survivors in the grisly attack. At the ceremony, leaders of the Ismaili community welcomed the chief minister and thanked him for his personal interest which helped catch the culprits only within a few days after the attack.
They also thanked the chief minister for constructing the five-kilometre-long stretch of road leading to Al-Azhar Garden. They also urged the chief minister to expedite the construction of another link road connecting the locality to Malir Cantt to which Qaim gave his approval.
The chief minister commended the Sindh Police on their hard work on catching the culprits. “My police force is efficient and hardworking,” he said. “They not only detected the case but made important arrests for which I also granted them cash prizes.”
He said he was a worker of the people and would always be available to them. "I can’t compensate for the loss of your loved ones. Life precious and it cannot be weighed in a handful of coins, but I have brought this amount as an aid to help you stand on your feet,” he said.