Sharjeel advises Centre to establish writ on Imran’s arrest issue

Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon told the media on Monday that a politician who had earlier raised the slogan of courting arrest to fill up Pakistan’s jails was now afraid of being imprisoned.

Memon said that the thought of imprisonment had caused Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan to lose his nerve. He pointed out that Khan was bent upon harming the country’s interests in his bid to return to power.

He said that a day earlier the federal government had shown restraint on the issue of arresting Khan in order to avoid violence and the loss of lives of innocent people. He advised the Centre to establish its writ on the issue.

Regarding the census, the minister said that it was the desire of the provincial government that the population count was carried out in a fair and transparent manner without attracting objection from any political party or other concerned group.

He said that the provincial assembly had also passed a resolution to make sure that the population count under way across the country was conducted in a fair manner. He added that a day earlier Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had come up with a clear stance on the census issue on behalf of the people of the province.

Talking about the local government elections in Karachi, Memon said that the Jamaat-e-Islami had won an unusual number of seats in the city because the Muttahida Qaumi Movement had boycotted the polls, otherwise the JI would not have won more than 25 seats.

He said that no one was stopping JI city chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman from dreaming of becoming the next Karachi mayor. He asked Rehman to immediately move the election commission to get a favourable decision about the LG polls instead of waiting for March 10, the date the JI leader had announced earlier.