Federal Guards
The malaise in the streets of the major city of Karachi has translated itself into bad commercial news and is well on its way to becoming an economic abyss for Pakistan. The desperate need to combat the dire straits has been repeatedly annunciated by government functionaries, most recently by Prime Minister Junejo. The Chief Minister of Sind has also taken some positive steps in the direction. All this amounts to too little, too late. Major, drastic means are necessary and the time for pontification has rapidly gone past. Making cosmetic changes in the administrative machinery and delivering dire warnings to a police force already at bay and demoralized serves no useful purpose. Instead of motivating the guardians of law and order, heedless admonitions will lead to alienating their already shaken loyalty to their duties and responsibilities.
The need is to have an intermediate force which will assist the existing police forces while maintaining its own independence and mobility of action. This force will also release the Army from Internal Security duties which they are now performing on a near continuous basis in the city of Karachi. The rapid economic decline due to loss of industrial production will develop into a vicious cycle of adversity as anarchy sets in and that is the primary reason for taking an immediate decision in this respect.
The aim of the Federal Guards would be to assist the existing forces of law and order in Pakistan. Their function should be to remain in reserve at the Federal level but be subordinated to Provincial Governments on an “as required” basis. Their roles may be to (1) counter urban terrorism (2) assist Provincial police forces in internal security duties (3) interdict transportation of drugs and arms (4) combat dacoity menace in Sind (5) secure the National Highways (6) provide protection to Federal Government VIP personnel and critical installations and (7) guard vital installations in time of emergency. These roles are easily dictated for the Federal Guards by the problems manifest in Pakistan today. The need to accomplish the mission defined will act as a pointer to the organisation and size of the force which at the same time must have its own intelligence establishment. Based on the aforegoing, it is necessary to locate sizable forces in (1) troubled cities (2) cities where trouble in the future is anticipated (3) along arterial highways (4) dacoit menaced areas (5) nodal points with quick access from (1) to (4) above.
It naturally arises that this force should not be only recruited with care but be exceedingly well-trained, equipped and sufficiently motivated with good pay and service conditions. For each of their roles supporting the Aim, it is necessary to give them commensurate adequate equipment. Besides equipping them with the most modern small arms, a suitable anti-dote to the Kalashnikov, they must have state-of-the-art communication equipment. Hand-me-downs from the Defence Services should be avoided as the Federal Guards are proposed to be engaged in sustained operations from Day One, a constant exercise where their motivation, training and equipment have to remain above par.
To combat urban terrorism, they have to emulate the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams in operation with the US police forces in various cities. SWAT teams were basically developed by the US Army in 1974 as Special Operations Unit and has since then become “viable strike and counter-strike units” in the words of Steven Mattoon writing in his pamphlet “SWAT — Training and Employment”. They must have the most modern armoured vehicles with tear-gas dispensers and water cannons. In France, riot situations are not handled by the police but by the CRA whose only job is to quell urban disturbances. With a centralized command post equipped with state-of-the-art electronics, computers and command consoles it should be possible to monitor and counter any urban terrorism or civil disturbances effectively. This force should also have a combination of light helicopters for surveillance/observation duties and medium helicopters for small-unit lifting capabilities. They must have night vision goggles for personnel and night vision devices for small arms. Thermal observation devices would be a great help for localizing opposition. In their role to assist the local police forces their services must be placed under the directions of the Provincial Chief Minister who may depute a senior police officer, preferably the IG Police, to utilise their services as necessary. The Federal Guards must NOT be broken up into smaller units less than a battalion and be utilised in bits and pieces. Their own command structure must remain intact because that should be the essence of their employment. A clear annunciation of responsibilities must be made.
In order to interdict the transportation of drugs and arms within Pakistan they are basically supporting the role of the Pakistan Rangers, Frontier Corps, Frontier Constabulary and the Pakistan Coast Guards. This new force acting along the highways, rail communication and other internal routes will free the anti-smuggling forces to do their own task on the borders. The Federal Guards have to have excellent mobility in the form of cross country vehicles, light aircraft and light/medium lift helicopters to achieve their mission. In accomplishing this task they will also be able to secure the National Highways of Pakistan for commercial and passenger traffic. A coordinated approach has to be developed for intelligence; where necessary information flow can be given from the various other agencies to the Federal Guards set-up for collation and dissemination. Again a computerized module suitably programmed can be a great command and control set up.
The dacoity menace in Sind has reached alarming proportions and there is a real threat to breakdown of the entire, centuries old social fabric with the forces of anarchy taking over. Adequately equipped Federal Guards deployed in permanent locations in the critically affected areas of Sind like Dadu, Sehwan, etc will have a great deterrence effect as well as breaking the back of the dacoity rule. Throughout the world and in history, armed bands of lawless forces have a habit of cropping up from time to time and the only way to crush them is by employing special forces and ruthless means. Unless their safe havens are made untenable, armed banditry tends to turn into insurrections and even guerilla warfare. The local police forces, under the threat of retribution to their families, actually become their collaborators, sometimes willingly as they share in the loot and booty.
Local police forces are overwhelmed by static duty for VIPs, diplomatic enclaves and vital installations in urban cities. A short list must be processed of those actually authorised to get such protection by law and these must be taken over by a special protection unit within the Federal Guards which can also guard the President and Prime Minister. Similarly, during emergency or wartime the guarding of vital installations like oil refineries, main road and rail bridges, water and electricity installations must be taken over by the Federal Guards as per a pre-designated plan.
The tasks having been defined, the size of the Federal Guards have to be determined. Cities which may be the major targets of urban terrorism are Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Islamabad, Lahore and Hyderabad and the forces deployed may be (1) Karachi — 12,000 men (2) Peshawar — 3,000 men (3) Quetta — 3,000 men (4) Islamabad — 6,000 men (5) Lahore — 3,000 men and (6) Hyderabad — 6,000 men. To combat the dacoity menace we need a separate force of 12,000 men based in the interior of Sind in places like Sehwan, Dadu, Jacobabad, Mirpurkhas, etc. To guard the National Highways and interdict arms/drugs traffic one would probably need forces deployed at (1) Sukkur — 3,000 men (2) Sargodha — 1,000 men (3) Faisalabad — 1,000 men (4) Multan — 3,000 men (5) DI Khan/DG Khan/Bahawalpur/ Sadeqabad/Rahimyar Khan — 1,000 men each which brings us to a total of 57,000 — 60,000 men divided into brigades and battalions. A proposed organisation would have a Federal Guard HQ at Islamabad, with four brigades, one each based at the Provincial HQs. For special tasks at Karachi and the interior of Sind, special tactical Brigade HQs are to be designated while the central reserve can be maintained at Sukkur almost in the centre of the country with good rail and road communications. The Federal Guards should have a 600 men battalion each with 4 rifle companies of 125 men and a Battalion HQ with specialist troops of various categories of 100 men. The Federal Guards Battalion should be commanded by officer equivalent to a major’s rank. Battalions can be grouped in regiments, 6 battalions making a regiment commanded by an officer equivalent to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Approximately 3-4 regiments will be formed into a Brigade commanded by an officer of the rank equivalent to that of a Colonel. Both the special task forces envisaged should be commanded by officers of the rank of Colonel. The Federal Guards need a Commandant in the form of an officer equivalent to that in rank to a Brigadier with a full Colonel equivalent as his second-in-command. This way the HQs element will not be top-heavy.
We have discussed the economic benefits of having such a force. To recount, it will (1) allow economic activity to progress unhindered (2) control forces which are anathema to stable economic activity such as drugs and arms smuggling (3) free local police forces to combat crime effectively (4) allow commerce based on agriculture in the interior of Sind to re-establish its identity and (5) free the Army from the thankless, task of Aid to Civil Power. It is important that the command element to control this force must be in the hands of the elected representatives, preferably the Federal Minister of State for Interior on a day-to-day basis who shall make the forces available to the various Provincial Chief Ministers on an “as required” basis from time to time. In this manner there will be close liaison between the Federal Cabinet and the Provincial Governments at an exceedingly high level.
There is a cost to all this but when one considers the economic cost of one day’s stoppage of commercial and industrial work in cities like Karachi, the cost becomes a bitter but bearable pill. We are at the brink of economic apocalypse as the forces of disintegration and lawlessness go into high gear. Beset by external forces one cannot invariably turn to the Army as a panacea of all ills particularly when we are bringing their credibility and goodwill among the masses into disrepute. No cost is too high to pay for all this. The formation of the Federal Guards has multi-purpose benefits far exceeding the roles envisaged. The only word of caution is the fear of its being used for political purposes. In this respect some mechanism has to be found constitutionally to forbid its employment or political purposes.
The preceding paragraphs are only a proposal and one is sure that better, more experienced minds can come up with better organisation and deployment suggestions. One is simply concerned with the fact that in order to create a suitable atmosphere for sound commercial activity, the creation of such a force must be kept simple in organisation and effective in employment. Our poor masses need industrial peace desperately and frequent riots, dacoities, kidnappings, bombings, etc disturb the harmony needed for good economic activity. A complete proposal for a Federal Reserve Police is being debated within the Government. There is no time left for more debate. We have to go ahead and implement the notions that we have being giving lip-service to. One can call it the Reserve Police, Federal Guards, Armed Constabulary, etc; anything as long as we now implement the idea for the sake of the well-being of the economy of Pakistan.
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