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Rangers want police role in Karachi

Islamabad - The bench resumed hearing of the Karachi law and order suo motu case at its Karachi registry.

Sindh Rangers Director General Maj-Gen. Bilal Akbar has urged the Supreme Court to allow the paramilitary force to set up its own 'police stations' as he took a swipe at the police for its poor investigation.
"If this is done, obviously after registering FIR and conducting investigation, challans shall be filed in normal courts or anti-terrorism courts established under the judicial system of Pakistan," Maj-Gen. Bilal told the apex court's five-member bench. He said police prosecution has been incomplete which leads to release of hundreds of accused persons by courts. The period of delegating special police powers to Rangers should be one year instead of present three months, he added.
The bench resumed hearing of the Karachi law and order suo motu case at its Karachi registry.
Presenting a progress report before the court at its Karachi registry, the Rangers DG said that between September 2013 and March 4, 2016, the paramilitary force had arrested 5,096 suspects who had been handed over to the police for prosecution. Of these 168 had been convicted while 83 had been acquitted by the courts while 1,156 had been released on bail.
The report, filed by Advocate Shahid Anwar Bajwa on behalf of DG Rangers, claimed that over 1,100 suspected criminals had been let off the hook over the past 18 months owing to faulty police investigations.
As an example, the report quoted the case of a man who is allegedly involved in the attack on a bus in Safoora Goth in May 2015, which left at least 46 people dead. The report pointed out that the suspect had been arrested in 2011 but was let go after the police failed to properly investigate the case and produce evidence, even though intelligence reports clearly indicated he intended to commit bigger acts. "This he certainly did at Safoora Goth."
Maj-Gen. Bilal blamed the government's frequent transfer policy as one of the causes for the police's lacklustre performances. He pointed out that investigation officers are changed frequently at five police stations tasked with handling cases brought by Rangers. "The result has been nothing." The absence of tenure security, he pointed out, persists at multiple levels. Further, he lamented the quality of recruits within the police system which led to poor investigation of cases.
"Recruitment in Sindh police is not on the basis of merit and neither [do officers] receive sufficient training," he said.
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