PPP, PTI exchange barbs over Uzair Baloch JTI issue

KARACHI: Sindh Education and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani has said that it is now a well-established fact that the Peoples Aman Committee of Lyari in the past lent support to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.

Speaking at a press conference here on Sunday, the Sindh education minister said that Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Zaidi in the year 2014 had confessed that criminal cases lodged against the Peoples Aman Committee were politically motivated.

He said that Hahib Jan, who had remained associated with the Peoples Aman Committee, had also confessed that the leaders of the Aman Committee had taken part in the protest sit-in of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf at the Sea View during the previous regime. He claimed that Ali Zaidi had lied in a recent television programme that he (Ali Zaidi) didn’t know about any effort made in the past to include the Aman Committee leaders in the PTI. He alleged that it was now an open fact that during the previous regime, a committee had been constituted comprising the incumbent President Dr Arif Alvi, Sindh Governor Imran Ismail, and Ali Zaidi with the aim to include the Aman Committee in the PTI as the committee in question had made advances in this regard.

“I want to ask a question from Ali Zaidi that why he is keeping silence on the JIT report on the Baldia Town factory fire case when he has been talking a lot about terrorism,” he said.

He was of the viewpoint that the people of Karachi had to suffer a worsened power supply situation due to the present ineligible federal government. He said the federal government had curtailed gas supply to the K-Electric while it also failed to supply furnace oil to the privatized power utility for power generation during the peak summer months.

“The present incompetent and ineligible rulers first created the electricity crisis and now they are taking credit for resolving the issue after holding the protest sit-in. In the meantime, the electricity prices have also been increased,” he said.

The Sindh education minister said that personally he had no hope that the National Accountability Bureau would ever take any action against any leader of the PTI. He said that the fresh episode (the NAB’s inquiry) was perhaps an attempt made to give a clean chit to Sindh President of PTI Haleem Adil Shaikh. He said that the NAB had been taking no action at all on the report of the sugar inquiry commission despite that Prime Minister Imran Khan, Punjab chief minister, Asad Umar, Abdul Razzak Dawood, Hafeez Shaikh, Jahangir Tareen, and Khusro Bakhtiar were involved in the scandal.

He said that JIT reports and similar other non-issues were being focused on by the PTI through the media in order to divert the attention of the public away from bad governance during the party’s rule in the country as the issues of the worsened economy, sugar commission inquiry report, coronavirus situation, unsuitable wheat price situation in wheat, prices of petroleum products, and PIA were the current genuine issues in the country.

He said that K-Electric, Hyderabad Electric Supply Company and Sukkur Electric Power Company had been subjecting the masses to hardships but there was no action by the government against these entities of the power sector.

Speaking on the occasion, Sindh Information and Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah said that PTI leader Haleem Adil Shaikh in the present day himself conceded that he had done misappropriation with regard to land issues and the PM was now under obligation to remove him as the president of PTI Sindh chapter like the former Information adviser of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government Ajmal Wazir, who had been dismissed on corruption charges.

He said that PTI leaders in the past had stood on container and levelled allegations of corruption against all the political parties but now corrupt practices of the ruling party in the federal government and in different provinces had been coming to the fore.

Meanwhile, Maritime Minister Ali Zaidi through his twitter account replied that “a drug peddling provincial minister unsuccessfully trying to divert attention from the real issue. Uzair Baloch is in the custody of LEA’s for yrs, but those powerful political figures who used him & are clearly mentioned in the JITs roam free. They must be brought to justice.” He further said: “For the record, I publicly requested that Uzair Baloch be transferred in Rangers custody because I fear he will be eliminated by the powerful mafia mentioned in the JIT’s if he’s under Sindh Police custody. Uzair Baloch feared the same as well in his confessional statement.”

Ali Zaidi said in another tweet that “I’ve done my part for my city, my country & more importantly for all those who have been affected by gang wars & terrorists. I’ve done it at the cost of risking everything, including the safety of my family. Threat alerts have been issued for me and my family by LEA’s.”

“Rest assured, I will take this to the Honorable Supreme Court of Pakistan. What happens there is not in anyone’s control. Hopefully, the Honorable Judges will look at all the evidence & deliver justice. Allah is the only higher authority to seek justice after the SCP.”

The minister further tweeted: “Over 250 innocent hard working people died in Baldia factory fire. The JIT recommends that Sindh police was compromised during the investigation. It also recommends that a new FIR must be launched.” He asked Saeed Ghani: “Why was Sindh Govt sleeping for 4+ years? Honor code amongst criminals?”