Saeed Ghani rejects claim of secret video recording of Ali Zaidi during KTC meeting

KARACHI: Sindh Minister for Education and Labour, Saeed Ghani, has said no secret video was recorded of the last meeting of the Karachi Transformation Committee (KTC), held on January 16, featuring a row between Sindh chief minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah, and federal minister, Ali Zaidi, adding that the video proceedings of such sessions have been routinely maintained as several of its participants attended the meeting via video-link arrangement.

Talking to media persons at the Karachi Press Club on Monday, Sindh Minister for Education and Labour said the video recording of the KTC meeting would be made public if it became necessary to expose the unruly conduct of Ali Zaidi, Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs.

He said Ali Zaidi had been experiencing mental stress and it was the reason, the federal minister had been issuing statements against the Sindh chief minister. He advised the federal minister that instead of inquiring into the case of Sindh CM, he should first pose a question to the prime minister and his cabinet colleagues about the recent scams of sugar, wheat, medicines, petroleum, LNG, and natural gas, causing colossal loss of billions of rupees to the people of Pakistan.

Answering a question, he said the arrest of incumbent Sindh CM was out of the question, as Murad Ali Shah would continue to be the chief executive of the province till the remaining period of his tenure. He claimed that the accountability reference had been filed against the Sindh CM as he had demanded that the province should be provided with its constitutional rights, including the due shares in natural gas reserves and National Finance Commission’s (NFC) Award. He said the Sindh government had carried out record development in Karachi, exposing well the poor performance of the federal government before the people of the province and rest of the country.

Ghani accused that PTI’s Haleem Adil Sheikh had been nominated as the new leader of the opposition in the Sindh Assembly, who was capable of showing more insulting attitude than the previous opposition leader of the house, Firdous Shamim Naqvi. To a question, Saeed Ghani said that the media persons should look into the allegations against one of the activists of Muttahida Qaumi Movement who along with some of his party colleagues from Landhi and Korangi, and a former MPA of MQM, joined the Pakistan People’s Party on last Saturday. He claimed that the political activist, in question, had been picked up by Sindh Rangers some five to six years back and he had been released after inquiry.

The PPP leader said the party was not an investigation agency to conduct probe before accepting people into its fold. “We will definitely look into the issue if today some disclosures are being made in this regard”. He said the Sindh government still had the desire to get possession of the Pakistan Steel Mills to make it operational once more. He claimed that the present government should be held accountable as the losses of the PSM had increased to Rs42 billion during the current regime.