Qaim goes to Islamabad after holding consultations at CM House

 KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah left for Islamabad on Tuesday evening where he is expected to meet Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday (today) to discuss the controversial issue of the law-enforcement powers being bestowed upon the Sindh Rangers in Karachi.

Sources privy to the affair said that the Sindh chief minister was accompanied by Senior Minister for Finance, Energy, Planning and Development, Syed Murad Ali Shah, and Sindh Home Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal.

The meeting is expected to take place at the Prime Minister’s House in Islamabad at 9am where Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and other relevant officials of the federal government would also be present to sort out the issue of policing powers being given to the Sindh Rangers under the Anti-Terrorism law.

The chief minister on Tuesday afternoon held a consultative meeting with key ministers of his cabinet in order to  the case of the Sindh government on the issue of Rangers’ powers so that it could be emphatically and forcefully presented before the prime minister the following day.

The consultative meeting at the Chief Minister’s House was attended by provincial ministers including Nisar Khuhro, Murad Ali Shah, Dr Sikandar Mandhro, Sohail Anwar Siyal, Law Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister Murtaza Wahab Siddiqui, Sindh Advocate General Abdul Fatah Malik and other officials.

It is expected that the Sindh chief minister would ask the prime minister that the federal government should withdraw its fresh notification for giving again unconditional anti-terror powers to Sindh Rangers so that the Rangers should be bestowed law-enforcement powers on conditional basis with checks and balances as proposed in the resolution on the issue passed by the Sindh Assembly on 16 December 2015.

The chief minister is also expected to inform the prime minister about the reservations of his provincial government over the stepped up anti-corruption drive in Sindh by the Federal Investigation Agency and the National Accountability Bureau being federal-level agencies.

The chief minister is likely to request the prime minister that a differentiation should be maintained between the drives against corruption and terrorism, and both the concepts should not be inter-mingled so that both the important causes could be pursued in the best of national interests.

The chief minister is likely to convey to the prime minister that “the agenda of political victimization should not be furthered by the federal government in Sindh”, where an opposition party is ruling, under the garb of drives against corruption and terrorism.

The chief minister would call upon Nawaz Sharif that superior authorities of the provincial government should always be taken aboard and be taken into confidence well in advance regarding actions being taken by the federal agencies to weed out corruption and terrorism from the province.

In this regard, permission should be sought in advance from the Sindh chief minister being the chief executive of the province if the Rangers seek arrest of any person while perceiving him a facilitator or abettor of the terrorists.

The chief minister would also highlight the issues of non-payment of dues as per the decided provincial share from the federal divisible pool, non-cooperation or delayed assistance from the Centre for major ongoing development projects in Karachi, and also about non-fulfillment of the promise made by the prime minister earlier for provision of financial and material assistance to the Sindh government for conducting targeted operation in Karachi against criminals.

A one-on-one meeting between the Sindh chief minister and the prime minister is also expected before the formal meeting in which both the top authorities would be assisted by their respective aides.