If Ali Zaidi’s statement’s helps the accused or destroys the case then there will be legal repercussions, says Murad Ali Shah
ISLAMABAD:Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah has accused federal minister Ali Zaidi of making the recently-released Joint Investigation Team's (JIT) report on Lyari gangster Uzair Baloch controversial, alleging that he was trying to do that to favour the accused.
Speaking to the media after his appearance at the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Shah said they would only submit that report in court which had signatures of all the members of the JIT.
The chief minister added, they [Sindh government] released the report because they were under too much pressure. Ali Zaidi showed irresponsibility. I don’t know where he got the report from,” Shah said.
“If Ali Zaidi can tell us this then the media would not have published the JIT. Someone comes at night and hand him [Ali Zaidi] a piece of paper on a motorcycle and the next day he starts telling everyone about it. If Ali Zaidi’s statement helps the accused or destroys the case then there will be legal repercussions,” he said.
A day earlier, Zaidi while addressing a press conference, asked Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed to take a suo motu notice on the Uzair Baloch JIT report released by the Sindh government, saying the original report had been tampered with.
"It was our party's efforts, Ali Zaidi went to court as well. The JIT reports were not being made public," said information minister Shibli Faraz, accusing parties in power in Sindh of establishing their "personal state" rather than establishing the rule of law.
"We [PTI] have come to change the country and to do that, it is necessary to implement a reward and punishment system," said Zaidi. "This does not pertain to a petty motorcycle or car theft. He [Uzair Baloch] is admitting to 198 murders," he added.
The minister said that the report, "interestingly, does not mention on whose behest Baloch carried out the murders or committed all the crimes".
Reading from the JIT report, Zaidi said that Uzair had confessed that he met former chief minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah and PPP leader Faryal Talpur to have the head money on him waived off.
He said that at the last page of Baloch's sworn statement, the Lyari gangster had said he feared for his life, which he believed was under threat from Zardari and other politicians.
The minister said that the Sindh government had released the Baldia factory fire JIT report on Monday "with great difficulty", saying that the report said that the "gory act of Baldia factory is a glaring example of police inefficiency".
"When Sindh Police SP Rizwan released the report, he was transferred to Shikarpur," Zaidi disclosed. "Farhan Ghani removed an honest police officer."
He alleged that the Sindh government had been reluctant to release the JIT report and had said that its release would prove to be harmful for the nation's security.
"Those who were making [critical] speeches in the Assembly are patrons of gangsters as per the JIT report," he said, taking a shot indirectly at the PPP leadership.