Sindh Rangers chief slams international media for portraying Pakistan’s bad image

Sindh Rangers Director-General Major General Iftikhar Hassan Chaudhary on Monday criticised the international media and said that Pakistan was not as bad as shown by the foreign media.

Speaking at Dow University, which hosted an event to mark the International Day Against Drug Abuse, the Rangers director general said the incident that happened to the Pakistani family in Canada was regretful.

“Had the incidents like those that happened in Canada happened in Karachi, it would have been declared the world’s dangerous city,” said the Rangers DG.

The head of the paramilitary force said that Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy’s Oscar-winning film “Saving Face” was made after three incidents of acid attacks were reported in the country.

He then compared the situation in Pakistan to the situation in London, saying that more than 800 incidents of acid attacks were reported in the British capital yet no film was made and neither did the media report on it.

“10,000 knife attacks happened in Britain and no one got to know about them. Do you think London is safe?” asked the Rangers DG.

He compared Karachi to New York, saying that in 2020, 1,638 or 1,688 armed robberies took place in New York and only 280 in Karachi.

“We are not as bad as we are made out to be and we have started thinking ourselves as bad,” said the Sindh Rangers chief

The head of the paramilitary force then explained the procedures followed by Sindh Rangers when it apprehends a suspect.

He said the Sindh Rangers "do not have the right to prosecute a suspect and can only keep an individual in confinement for 24 hours." He said that after 24 hours, the Rangers are supposed to hand over the culprit to the police.

“Police have the prosecution rights, not us [Rangers],” said Maj Gen Chaudhary, adding that the Rangers did set up a joint prosecution team with the former Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Karachi.

The Rangers chief said that it was due to that joint prosecution team that the law enforcement agencies were able to identify former Lyari gangster Uzair Baloch in five cases.

 “Rangers work with other organisations, and we have made mistakes,” he acknowledged. However, he highlighted the importance of the Rangers and told the audience that a Karachi based businessman had told him that he would move to Lahore if the paramilitary force leaves the city.