‘Special Branch, MI should be included in probe committee’

KARACHI: The parliamentary party leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in Sindh Assembly, Haleem Adil Sheikh, on Tuesday said the Karachiites would kick out PML-N leader Captain (retd) Safdar Awan, whenever he would visit the city because of what he had done in the Quaid’s mausoleum.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday at the Sindh Assembly, he said it was the duty of Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP)-led Sindh government, particularly Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, to register an FIR against Captain (retd) Safdar because it was a matter of national integrity. “But CM Shah did not do it in the beginning and now accepted his mistake in the press conference, saying the police acted in accordance with the law to book and later arrest Safdar,” said Sheikh.

Sheikh said former governor Sindh Mohammad Zubair told a lie that the IGP Sindh was kidnapped. He also applauded the PTI’s MPAs for registering FIRs against Safdar and said his party would always be ready to protect the sanctity of Quaid’s mausoleum. He said Waqas Ahmed Khan, the plaintiff, who filed the case against PML-N leader Captain (retd) Safdar, was his nephew and a PTI leader. “Waqas Khan had tried to stop Safdar, who has hurled life threats,” Sheikh claimed. Talking about Waqas’ phone, he said he forgot it at his home.

The PTI leader claimed that the copy of Safdar’s bail was not given to the PTI lawyers. Commenting on Sindh CM’s press briefing, Sheikh said Murad Ali Shah is now hurling threats on the PTI workers. He claimed the police’s investigation report revealed that the provincial minister Saeed Ghani was involved in drug peddling, while two others ministers, including Imtiaz Sheikh and Sharjeel Inam Memon, were facing corruption charges. “A large number of absconders in the province are part of the ruling PPP,” he added.

The PTI Sindh’s vice-president said the representatives of Special Branch and Military Intelligence agencies should be included in the recently-formed Sindh ministerial probe committee to investigate Safdar’s arrest. Criticising the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chairman’s remarks about Urdu language in the PDM rally, the PTI leader said the heads of opposition parties remained silent over Mehmood Khan Achakzai’s derogatory remarks for the country’s national language in front of the Quaid’s mausoleum.

The PTI Karachi president and MPA Khuram Sherzaman said the PPP-led Sindh government did not allow the residents of Karachi to offer prayers during the holy month of Ramazan, but now it had been organising and hosting rallies, despite the recurrence of Covid-19 cases in the city.

“A day before the PDM rally, Sindh government’s officials were sealing schools, bazaars, and restaurants for not following the SOPs to prevent the outbreak of the pandemic but on Sunday, they brought people from across the province for their political rally at the cost of taxpayers money,” he said. “If the coronavirus would increase due to the rally, I would file an FIR against Sindh chief minister,” he announced.

Sherzaman said the PPP has completed more than 12 years of continuous rule in Sindh but the people of the province did not even have the facility of clean drinking water. He said the FIR should be registered as per the application of the management of Quaid’s mausoleum.

PTI MPAs Ali Aziz, Malik Shehzad Awan, Shahnawaz Jadon, Arslan Ghuman, Riaz Haider, Jamal Siddique, Kareem Bux Gabol, and other were also present on the occasion.