PTI, MQM-P slam Sindh govt for removing ‘honest’ cops

KARACHI: Expressing their serious concern over the Sindh government’s ‘smear campaign’ against police force in the province, leaders of the province’s major opposition parties on Thursday said that they would not allow the PPP’s government to remove Sindh police chief Dr. Syed Kaleem Imam at any cost.

Leaders of both parties separately said that actions of the Sindh Police against the ruling party-affiliated local politician in rural Sindh have irked the provincial government and it is that reason that they are removing Sindh police chief. Opposition leader Firdous Shamim Naqvi at a press conference at Insaf House, the party’s secretariat in Karachi, on Thursday, alleged that PPP ministers and ruling party’s politicians are involved in running criminal and dacoit gangs in Kutcha (riverine) area of Shikapur and adjoining districts. Naqvi, who is also a PTI’s central leader, claimed that provincial minister Imtiaz Shaikh had been running a criminal gang in his home district of Shikarpur to victimize his political rivals. He also said that other local politicians have been supporting and backing gangs of dacoits involved in kidnappings for ransom and robberies. Linking a notorious criminal Sardar Taigo Khan Taigani with provincial minister Imtiaz Shaikh, Naqvi said that the gang was involved in killing a number of police officers in operations against dacoits in Kuchta area. “There are several startling stories of such crime gangs backed by ruling politicians,” he said. Haleem Adil Sheikh, the PTI parliamentary leader in Sindh Assembly, said that rulers of Sindh are now defaming the police through a smear campaign against police force.