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Friday March 29, 2024

Is there a state or law of jungle, asks Qaim

Says he has asked PM why Sindh being attacked; not taken into confidence over Dr Asim’s arrest

By our correspondents
August 29, 2015
KARACHI: Enraged at Dr Asim Hussain’s arrest, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah on Friday said that he had asked Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif whether there was a state or if there was a law of the jungle in the country and further questioned why the Sindh province had been attacked.
He declared the raids in Sindh as attacks on the province. He said that he was not taken into confidence on the arrest of Dr Asim Hussain.
He said, “Pakistan is a state not a jungle and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has no right to interfere in provincial matters.”
Syed Qaim Ali Shah said that he, being the provincial chief executive, was not informed and consulted about the arrest of Dr Asim Hussain and his production in the court of law by the Rangers.
Talking to newsmen after inaugurating the Mohtarma Nusrat Bhutto Underpass at Shara-e-Faisal, the Sindh CM said the arrest of Dr Asim Hussain was a major incident and it was quite unfair and unwarranted.
The chief minister said that just after the arrest of Dr Asim, he had spoken to the corps commander and DG Rangers and he told them that there were some serious complaints. “But when they sent me the details of the complaints against Dr Asim, I found them to be general in nature without solid substance,” he recalled.
“On this, I today summoned the DG Rangers (to the CM House), who provided certain evidence on the issue but such evidence could not provide the basis for his arrest. I told him that I should have been informed about the complaints but this was not done,” the CM said and added that the DG Rangers had assured him that he (the CM) would be taken into confidence before such actions and this issue would also be settled.
The chief minister, talking about the arrest of Dr Asim, said if there were some complaints against him, they would have been probed and if substantiated, he would have been arrested. “The procedure has not been followed in this case. This is not fair and it has invited the wrath of my party,” he said.
The chief minister said: “My party is not satisfied with the action taken against Dr Asim. They hold me responsible because they (PPP) have elevated me to the position of the chief minister. Being an elected chief minister and head of the provincial apex committee, I must be consulted,” he said.
He said Dr Asim was the chairman of the provincial Higher Education Commission and had the status equivalent to a minister here. “Moreover, he had also remained the president of PMA (Pakistan Medical Association) while he enjoyed popularity in the medical circles here,” said the CM. He said that Dr Asim would soon come back after being released honourably.
The chief minister claimed the FIA would return from here (Sindh) in the coming one to two days while the other federal agencies would also stop interfering in provincial affairs. “We are also working so that National Accountability Bureau (NAB) is stopped from committing excesses here,” he said.
Qaim Ali Shah said that he had talked twice to the prime minister and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on the issue of interference by the FIA and NAB in affairs of the Sindh government as both had assured him that reservations of the province with regard to the federal investigating and anti-corruption agencies would soon be allayed.
The CM had termed the recent stepped-up activities of the two federal agencies “invasion by NAB and FIA of Sindh”.
“The prime minister had told me that he was not aware of their actions and had assured me of redressing our grievances but even then raids continued on the Civic Centre,” he deplored.
The CM said that Inspector General of Sindh Police and DG Rangers were under his administration as the operation in Karachi was going on under his control while he was fully responsible for the operation being conducted here. He said that in last two years, there had been a marked decrease in instances of target killings, extortion of money, kidnappings for ransom and terrorism in the province including Karachi.
“The Sindh government was given the task of eliminating target killings, money extortion, terrorism and kidnappings for ransom. Thanks God, within two years, all these issues have been largely eradicated,” he said.