Karachi’s occupation by the Pakistan Rangers has been planned and systematic. Along with colleges and universities, the all-conquering paramilitary has also usurped a number of sports complexes and hospitals in the city. While student body feuds are the official justification for the rangers’ presence in educational institutions, no excuses are forthcoming for the wholly unjustified control of other civic infrastructure.

Although the rangers have been gracious enough to vacate a handful of properties, the extensive damage caused by their stay will take years and millions to repair. For instance, 2001 saw the rangers end their eight-year stay at the National Coaching Centre (NCC), which is the property of the Pakistan Sports Board and the primary training facility in Karachi for aspiring athletes. While it was under the control of the rangers, no one was allowed to train at the NCC. Two years after their departure, the centre is still not in any position to offer indoor training to athletes who come from all over the country to attend trials and training camps. The loss incurred due to the rangers’ pillaging cannot be quantified.

Another example is the occupation of football pitches in Lyari, where Kakri Ground and the People’s Stadium are still unavailable to the public. The People’s Stadium was built along international standards with floodlights and a capacity of over 50,000 spectators. Unfortunately its best years have been played out in front of empty stands. A few tournaments have indeed been staged, but for the most part the stadium has met the same sorry fate as any other rangers-occupied facility: misuse and ultimate ruination.

The Pakistan Rangers have turned colleges and universities across Karachi into their private lairs.

“Law and order has been turned into an economic tool. There is no reason whatsoever for posting law enforcement agencies at educational institutions,” says Faisal Sabzwari, a Sindh Assembly member and president of the All Pakistan Mohajir Students Organisation. Sabzwari is particularly opposed to the presence of the Pakistan Rangers, insisting they are the cause of campus trouble in Karachi rather than its cure. “The rangers are not trained to police educational institutions and this incompetence leads to maltreatment of students.”

The rangers have retained a tight grip on the educational institutions they ‘liberated’ in 1989. “They have a vested interest in indefinitely prolonging their presence,” asserts Sabzwari, pointing to the fact that the hostels of Karachi’s larger colleges now serve as living quarters for the paramilitary force.

The Pakistan Rangers currently police no less than 40 of the 60 government colleges in Karachi as well as the city’s two public sector universities. With the exception of Dow Medical College, every educational institution with a student hostel now also houses the rangers.

Karachi's civic bodies continue to be hampered by the dauting presence of the Pakistan Rangers.

Devolution of power was awarded pride of place in the Musharraf regime’s political agenda. In Karachi, however, the local government experiment has run into serious snags with the Pakistan Rangers posing the biggest hurdle in the way of effective administration.

The rangers have been involved in several run-ins with the city’s civic bodies, most notably the now defunct Karachi Development Authority (KDA), the Karachi Building Control Authority (KBCA) and the City Government Traffic Bureau (CGTB).