The Rangers’ presence in Karachi has become a highly debated and starkly divisive subject. This is an anomaly, consideringthe paramilitary force has been a constant feature in the city since 1989. While this is a relevant debate, one that should have been resolved a long while ago, there seems to be very little actual debating being done on this subject. Dramatic gestures are doing most of the work.
Altaf Hussain – who operates exclusively in dramatic gestures – vehemently opposes the Ranger’s stay. He is arguing that they are exclusively targeting his party through political motivation and are exceeding their legal mandate to do so. Yet, instead of making a case for this he is resorting to antics such as his hunger strike. This does nothing to explain why he feels the Ranger’s should be reigned in. All it does is project a sense of victimisation and outrage amongst his supporters. The MQM chief would be better served taking up the issue in the Sindh parliament, the only body which can amend the duration of the Rangers’ stay or the ambit of their authority. Or he should approach the Chief Minister, who extended their stay for one year despite being extremely anxious about what the paramilitary force was investigating. Playing the oppressed victim, and that too with such transparent ploys, only damns him as the politician who started opposing the Rangers and the army, only when his party was at the receiving end.
There is strength in the argument that the Ranger's performing policing duties in Karachi are a makeshift arrangement, which leads to administrative overlap with the police, and some conflict of interest. But the needs of the sprawling metropolis of Karachi outweigh these concerns heavily. The Karachi Police is spread thin over the city and it is severely undermanned. The paramilitary force is better armed, better trained, better funded, and is autonomous from the Sindh provincial government, making it a better candidate to tackle the complexities of Karachi’s crime.
That being said, the Rangers have stepped up pressure against the MQM, sometimes more harshly than was due. The debate on the Rangers’ stay has become exigent, and needs to be had on the provincial or federal level.