ISLAMABAD: The federal government rejected on Tuesday the summary sent to it by Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah seeking to curtail powers of Rangers deployed in the province.

The interior ministry in a letter to the chief secretary of Sindh made it clear that the paramilitary force would continue to operate in the province with full powers.

The ministry’s letter says: “The powers conferred under Section 4 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) and the law cannot be conditionally abridged or customised. Exercise of all powers upon law-enforcement agencies (LEAs) is subject to judicial review.”

It adds: “The authorisation of the provincial governments can only be made as per the law and additional conferment of powers is also possible only as per provisions of respective enactments as may be authorised. The powers of anti-terror act cannot be customised or separated.”

An official of the Prime Minister Office said the letter had been cleared by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and a formal notification for the “unconditional conferment of powers will be issued by the federal government”.

Answering a question, the official said the federal government had extended the powers of Sindh Rangers for 60 days and it had not sought another summary from the provincial government to make corrections in its earlier summary based on a resolution adopted by the Sindh Assembly.

According to the assembly resolution, “Rangers will only have powers with respect to target killing, extortion, kidnapping for ransom and sectarian killing”. It also barred Sindh Rangers from “raiding any office of government of Sindh or any other government authority without prior written approval of the Chief Secretary, Government of Sindh”.

PPP calls it invasion of Sindh and warns against its consequences for political stability of the federation

Constitutional lawyers are of the view that the Sindh government was only doing politics over the issue. “Rangers have been deployed in the province by invoking anti-terrorism laws which put no bar whatsoever on their role to control terrorism in Sindh,” senior lawyer Salman Akram Raja told Dawn.

He said the Sindh government was taking the cover of the Article 147 of the Constitution which says a provincial government could either conditionally or unconditionally entrust its certain powers to the federal government, but it was not applicable to the present case.

Former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association Yasin Azad said: “It is very unfortunate that the PPP-led Sindh government is doing politics with the serious issue of law and order of the province. It is very simple. If the provincial government doesn’t need Rangers, it should send them back because putting restrictions on a law-enforcement agency makes no sense.”

Reacting to the development, the PPP condemned what it called the invasion of Sindh province by the federal government and warned against its consequences for the political stability of the federation.

Senator Farhatullah Babar, spokesperson for PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, said in a statement that by rejecting the constitutional right of Sindh to limit the scope of Rangers the federal government had acted in sheer violation of the Constitution.

He cited Article 147 which states: “Notwithstanding anything contained in the Constitution, the Government of a Province may, with the consent of the Federal Government, entrust, either conditionally or unconditionally, to the federal government, or to its officers, functions in relation to any matter to which the executive authority of the Province extends: — Provided that the Provincial Government shall get the functions so entrusted ratified by the Provincial Assembly within sixty days.”

It was thus abundantly clear that the imposition of certain conditions on the authority of the Rangers as well as seeking ratification of those limitations from the provincial assembly was well within the constitutional right of the Sindh government, he said.

The federal government had transgressed its mandate and authority, he added.

Mr Babar said the PPP would not permit this invasion on the provincial domain and warned against its consequences for the political stability of the federation.

He said that the party would fight against this highhandedness at all available forums, including parliament, and seek to overturn the decision of the federal government.

“The PPP also calls upon enlightened public opinion to raise its voice against this assault on the Constitution. The PPP rejects the contention of the Interior Minister that the Sindh government and Assembly were seeking unconstitutional annulment or abridgment of a federal law namely the Anti-Terrorism Act. Neither the Sindh Assembly nor the provincial government has sought to annul the federal law. The truth of the matter is that under Article 147 of the Constitution the provincial government can legitimately entrust to a federal agency its functions and also impose some limitations on the powers of the authority performing those functions. It is also bound under this Article to seek ratification of this arrangement from the Provincial Assembly,” he said.

At no stage the provincial government had called for annulling or abridging the ATA or any other federal law, Senator Babar said.

A TV channel quoted Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Shah as saying: “Let the federal government do whatever it wanted, we will face it.”

Sources in the PML-N said that with the growing confrontation between Rangers and PPP’s provincial government, the federal government had come under immense pressure from different directions.

“Let’s see what happens in the coming days, but at the moment the prime minister is trying his best to keep the situation under control by sticking to the agreement reached among all stakeholders to take the Karachi operation to its logical end,” said a senior office-bearer of the PML-N.

On rumours about the possibility of imposition of governor’s rule in Sindh, he said: “I don’t think the prime minister will even think of this option.”

Later, a spokesman for the interior ministry said in a statement that the federal government had spent Rs9 billion a year on Sindh Rangers. Details of the expenditure would be disclosed on Wednesday, he said.

The spokesman said if anyone had a complaint, confusion or contention about decisions of the ministry or the government, he could go to courts.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2015