Pakistan Rangers | |
---|---|
Founded | 14 August 1947 |
Country | Pakistan |
Type | Paramilitary |
Size | 100,000 active troops |
Part of | Paramilitary forces of Pakistan |
Headquarters | Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore |
Motto(s) | Daim's Sahir'n "Ever Ready" |
Colour | red and blue |
Commanders | |
Director General, Punjab | Major-General Umar Farooq Burki, |
Director General, Sindh | Major-General Muhammad Saeed |
The Pakistan Rangers (Urdu: پاکستان رےنجرز) are a paramilitary law enforcement organization in Pakistan and have a primary mission of securing Pakistan's International Border (IB) with India in peace as well as war time, but are also employed in internal security operations, and providing assistance to the police in maintaining law and order.
Rangers is an umbrella term for the Pakistan Rangers (Punjab), headquartered in Lahore, responsible for guarding Punjab Province's 1,300 km long IB with India, and the Pakistan Rangers (Sindh), headquartered in Karachi, defending Sindh Province's ~912 km long IB with India. The forces operate under their own separate chains of command and wear distinct uniforms.
Most famously each evening, the Punjab Rangers together with their Indian counterparts in the Border Security Force, participate in an elaborate flag lowering ceremony at Wagah border crossing near Lahore.
The mutually-recognised International Border is different from the disputed Line of Control (LoC) where Pakistan's Punjab Province adjoins Kashmir; as a result the LoC is not managed by the paramilitary Punjab Rangers, but by the regular Pakistan Army.
Rangers are formally supervised by Special Security Unit, National Crises Management Cell, in the federal Ministry of Interior, but are commanded by officers on secondment from the Pakistan Army. As part of the Civil Armed Forces the Rangers can come under under the operational control of army corps headquarters, not just in war time, but whenever Article 245 of the Pakistani Constitution is invoked to provide 'military aid to civil power', for example in Karachi since 2015, and in Punjab since February 2017.