Rangers` Fake Report And The Silence of The State Authorities!

Last week, Pakistani media reported that the Senate’s Functional Committee on Human Rights rejected a report of an unknown organization (called “Human Rights Commission on South Asia” http://hrcsa.org/onewebmedia/karachi%20operation%20should%20continue2.htm) over the human rights violations in Karachi Operation. The report had been submitted by the Sindh Rangers in which they were given a clean chit. The committee declared the report fake and deceptive (http://www.dawn.com/news/1277943 ). Question is, why did the Rangers have to submit a fake report?

Apparently, Sindh Rangers had been required to submit their response to the complaints of serious human rights violations by them especially belonging to MQM. However, by submitting a report of a fake organization, Rangers officials tried to authenticate their claim that they had committed no such violations in Karachi. Question is, what is the reliability remaining in the Rangers` denial after their report has turned out to be fake? Further, have the Rangers not committed a serious crime by trying to misguide the Senate? Is this not a sheer violation of the Article 62 & 63 of the constitution of Pakistan?

Unfortunately, this was not the first time Rangers made a misleading report. In 2013 too, then Director General Sindh Rangers submitted a similar report to the Supreme Court of Pakistan in which he blamed that 19,000 weapon-laden NATO containers had been stolen from the Karachi port. According to him, it was the same stolen ammunition being used by criminals in the killings in Karachi. He accused MQM`s federal Minister of being behind it (http://www.dawn.com/news/1039406). Furthermore, just like the DG Rangers, the attorney general also submitted a report to the Supreme Court on behalf of the Sindh government in which he fully endorsed the Rangers` accusation and also claimed that these were the same weapons being used by Karachi-ites for areal firing on the occasions of their wedding functions.

Fortunately, US authorities refuted the report by making it clear that it neither ever shipped weapon-laden containers via Karachi port for Afghanistan, nor any of them got stolen (http://www.dawn.com/news/1040766).

That clarification altogether burst the balloon of 19,000 NATO containers` story. Otherwise, the already oppressed part (MQM) and (Urdu speaking) community could have been easily victimized through another operation on the basis of a maliciously fabricated report. Unfortunately, instead of taking stern actions against then DG Rangers (under Article 62 & 63 of the Constitution) for maligning the most popular party of Urban Sindh (MQM) as well as for misleading the Supreme Court of Pakistan, he was promoted to the post of DG ISI. He is the man believed to be actually leading the operation hitting MQM below the belt. Taking into account all this, does it not become quite easy to understand why the Pakistani law-enforcement agencies have been targeting MQM since the beginning.

Everybody knows that the on-going Rangers-led operation was launched in the light of the Supreme Court`s observation given in the Karachi lawlessness case according to which different political & religious parties/groups (including MQM) had militant wings. Importantly, that observation was not given following the arguments, counter arguments, relevant evidences and witnesses produced from both sides. Rather, it was made a part of the verdict after the reports and briefings given to the judges not in the courts, but privately in their chamber by the officials of law-enforcement agencies. This was the same observation which has been used as a justification for the on-going seize and search operations, arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, in-custody torture and even extra-judicial killings of the people belonging to MQM. Keeping in view the Rangers` reports (accusing MQM of being involved in crimes) getting proved fake and/or baseless, can the on-going operation be considered fair? 

There have gone almost three years since the operation was launched in 2013 and about three times the stay and extra-ordinary powers to the Rangers have been extend, yet the LEA`s have failed to prove their self-introduced allegations on MQM in the courts. By now, what they have produced in the support are nothing, but dozens of charge sheets (in form of JIT`s) and confessions of MQM`s arrested workers which were taken during the custody of 90 days or more. Point to keep in mind is that an in-custody confession has no legal value before a court. Secondly, the extra-judicial killings and the brutally tortured death bodies of MQM`s arrested workers obviously reveal the entire process of taking confessions in the custody.

Regardless of MQM`s complaints, local and international organizations of human rights have also reported several incidents of brutality by the police & Rangers in Karachi and expressed their serious concerns over them. Even the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances of United Nations called attention of the government of Pakistan to the cases of enforced disappearances of MQM`s workers (http://www.mqm.org/urdunews/38099 ).

That was the biggest reason why Sindh Rangers had to produce and submit a fake report of a non-existing organization over the complaints regarding violation of human rights. Otherwise, it could not get the desired clean chit from any genuine organization of human rights.

Keeping in view all these undeniable facts, can it be accepted that the Rangers are unbiased towards MQM and that they are conducting actions within the legal & constitutional boundaries in Karachi? Logically no!

Although it was the responsibility of the elected government, army chief as well as the chief justice of Supreme Court of Pakistan to take notice of the violations and order stern punishments to all the responsible personnel and officers from top to bottom. However instead of this, they not only appreciated their actions, but also vowed to continue the same in future. In such a scenario, does MQM`s claim not seem to be true that the real aim of the operation is to victimize Urdu speaking community and that the state authorities are not ready to accept them in Pakistan?