Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has told his fellow members in the National Assembly that he had directed the Rangers Sindh chief not to arrest lawmakers.
Nisar said Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani had informed him that some lawmakers were facing criminal charges and that they could be arrested by the paramilitary force.
“I have stopped the director general of Rangers from arresting the lawmakers,” said the minister. “They the Rangers can only file cases against them on concrete evidences, that too after consulting with me.”
He told the house that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s claims regarding party activists going missing and their extrajudicial killings allegedly at the hands of the Rangers officials were “false and misleading”.
The interior minister said the problem lay not with the paramilitary force but with the speeches of MQM chief Altaf Hussain. “The MQM has no control over what their leader says in his speeches from London.”
He said the MQM was creating a wrong impression about itself that it was being victimised. “I’m ready to share the details of the Karachi operation.”
The minister said peace had been restored in Karachi after 20 years “after the Rangers arrested everyone causing unrest in the port city”. He said all the political parties except the MQM were in favour of the Karachi operation.
The interior minister also convened a meeting with the DG Rangers and intelligence officials and issued them fresh directives. He said the damage had already been done, adding that damage control would take more time for the MQM.
He reiterated that the Rangers, the Pakistan Army or the ongoing targeted operation in Karachi was not against the MQM. “The government is prepared to sit down with the MQM to discuss their persisting issues to resolve them.”
