DG Rangers rejects claims of ‘political engineering’
Saeed says the intelligence agencies and LEAS contact all political parties for peace in Karachi and such contacts are a matter of routine since the operation in the Sindh capital was launched in 2013
Islamabad:thedirectorgeneral of the Sindh Rangers Major General Muhammad Saeed has rejected allegations of political engineering in Karachi.
“Peacehasbeenestablishedinkarachi due to an operation in which law enforcement agencies (LEAS) rendered sacriices, therefore,wedonotwantthemetropolitan to return to the situation prevailing before September 2013,” he told a TV channel.
Saeed said intelligence agencies and LEAS contact all stakeholders (political parties) for peace in Karachi and such contacts are a matter of routine since the Karachi operation was launched in 2013. “Rangers are working only for peace.”
He said the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-pakistan (MQM-P) and Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) were in contact with each other for eight months. “It is now up to them to do politics together or separately, there should not be violence.”
On Saturday, PSP Chairman Mustafa Kamal said he held talks with MQM-P chief Dr Farooq Sattar at the behest of the establishment, rejecting the impression that he was not the one who asked for talks.
The Rangers chief said the military establishment has not supported any particular political party in Karachi and that the armed forces had no part to play in the formation of alliance or the subsequent breakup between the MQM-P and PSP.
He said that the establishment had nothing to do with the merger of PSP and MQM, “we just don’t want a clash between them.”
Saeed did agree that MQM-P and PSP leaders had multiple meetings with Rangers and LEAS, however, he negated the claim that the armed forces had brokered an alliance between the two.
He said that during the meeting between MQM-P, PSP and LEAS a military oficial might have shared an opinion that an alliance would be in the interest of Karachi “but this is not our institutional policy. “We don’t want Karachi’s law and order situation to deteriorate, as it was before 2014.”
The Rangers chief rejected the notion that MQM-P came to life during his predecessor’s tenure. “If MQM was created by the armed forces, would we still be pursuing cases against them?”
He said the cases registered against MQM-P leaders Sattar, Amir Khan and others, following the events of Aug.22, 2016, were still going on and the Rangers’ lawyers still appear before the court to pursue them.