KARACHI: The Sindh Assembly on Friday unanimously approved a resolution extending the deployment and powers of the Rangers in the province for another year and passed a separate resolution paying tribute to Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah on his death anniversary.
The Rangers’ deployment has been extended from July 20, 2026 to July 19, 2027 to assist the civil administration under Article 147 of the Constitution. The resolution said the extension was necessary in view of the law and order situation in the province. It credited Rangers’ operations with reducing targeted killings and street crime, while noting that activities of proscribed organisations and absconding suspects remained a security threat.
It said the continued presence of Rangers was necessary to protect public peace and the lives and property of citizens. The force had also played an important role in intelligence-based operations conducted with the police.
The resolution paying tribute to Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was jointly moved by members of the Pakistan Peoples Party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Jamaat-e-Islami and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.
Senior Sindh Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon also called for prayers for the Quaid-i-Azam on his death anniversary. He said the founder of Pakistan had played a historic role in the creation of the country through his tireless efforts, struggle and sacrifices. Memon said the nation should renew its commitment to the principles of “faith, unity and discipline” given by the Quaid-i-Azam. He said Jinnah had envisioned a strong, united and great Pakistan and his message remained a guiding light for the nation.
During the proceedings, Jamaat-e-Islami member Muhammad Farooq praised the police for arresting the suspect involved in the attack on a Karachi University professor.
He said the Sindh Assembly’s Standing Committee on Home Affairs had asked the police a day earlier to arrest the suspect within 24 hours. Farooq also criticised the “dacoit culture” in the megacity and called for its immediate elimination.
During question hour, Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government Qasim Siraj Soomro said 11 underpasses had been built in Karachi between 2022 and 2025, while two more were under construction.
He said the Submarine Chowrangi and Johar Chowrangi underpasses had been completed, while the Karimabad and Munawar Chowrangi underpasses would be completed this year.
Soomro said the Korangi Causeway project was completed in January 2026 at a cost of Rs6.135 billion. He said its cost increased because the number of pillars was raised.
He said the K-IV water supply project would be completed in 2027. The Karachi Water Corporation, he added, cleaned Hub Dam from time to time to ensure the supply of clean water to citizens. He said the Umar Sharif Underpass should have had a proper drainage system, but the facility was not included in its original design. Two underpasses had also been proposed in Defence, including one near the Saudi Consulate, but consultants had not agreed to the projects.
MQM legislator Musarrat Jabeen raised the issue of water supply, following which the minister directed relevant officials to contact her and Fouzia Hameed moved a calling-attention notice on the use of high-beam LED lights on vehicles. Sindh Home Minister Zia-ul-Hassan Lanjar accepted that the problem existed across the province and said a crackdown would be launched against the practice.
PTI parliamentary leader Muhammad Shabbir Qureshi complained about the maltreatment of his party workers during Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Sohail Afridi’s recent visit to Sindh. He alleged that police picked up PTI workers and tortured an MNA. He claimed that a party colleague from District Central had suffered a broken leg. “The Sindh government had us subjected to violence,” he said, questioning the government’s claim of being the “party of martyrs”.
The Assembly unanimously passed the Fatimiyah University Karachi Bill and the Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Human Resource Development Board (Amendment) Bill. Both bills were introduced by Law Minister Lanjar.
The Assembly also took up prolonged power outages in Sindh. Speaking on a calling-attention notice moved by PTI member Sajjad Soomro about prolonged outages by K-Electric in Lyari, Sharjeel Memon blamed what he described as incompetence and mismanagement by the federal power ministry.
He said HESCO, SEPCO and K-Electric had failed to provide basic services, calling prolonged load-shedding a clear example of governance failure, adding that “eighteen-hour load-shedding in temperatures of 50 degrees Celsius cannot be accepted”.
Speaker Syed Owais Qadir Shah said the issue was not limited to Karachi and affected all districts of Sindh. He directed that the matter be taken up with the federal government.
Memon called for the heads of the relevant power companies to be summoned before a parliamentary committee and held accountable. The speaker directed that their chief executives be summoned to a committee meeting on September 23.
He said K-Electric had been privatised but Karachi continued to face power cuts. He said the companies were making profits and questioned why an effective mechanism had not been developed to resolve the issue.
He said consumers who failed to pay their bills should face action, but those who regularly paid must be guaranteed basic electricity supply. He said the matter should also be raised in the National Assembly and Senate. He added that Sindh faced similar problems involving water, gas and motorways, with clean drinking water being another major concern in Karachi.
Some areas of Punjab received subsidies for water supply, while Sindh, particularly Karachi, faced serious difficulties in obtaining clean drinking water, he added.
The senior minister said a parliamentary committee had already summoned representatives of HESCO, SEPCO and K-Electric, but the problem remained unresolved. He called for representatives of the gas, water and other relevant institutions and ministries to also be summoned. “If these institutions fail to meet their responsibilities under the law and remain unable to satisfy the parliamentary committee, effective action should be taken against them,” he said.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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