Tariq has also gone to Sindh High Court's Larkana circuit bench, requesting for protection. "I am afraid the agencies may harass me over the Asad Kharal issue," he said. PHOTO: FILE
SUKKUR: Sindh home minister's younger brother, Tariq Sial, came forward on Thursday to defend his family's name after facing criticism for preventing the arrest of an allegedly corrupt clerk.
Tariq Sial addressed a press conference at his house in Larkana on Thursday evening. He denied having any links with Asad Kharal, a clerk in Bakrani taluka administration who is facing corruption charges.
On Tuesday night, plainclothes Rangers men and a National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Hyderabad team had intercepted Kharal in Dari, near Ghotki. They wanted to question him about his alleged role in two corruption cases worth Rs500 million and his alleged links with criminals.
As soon as Kharal was detained, his friend called a local influential man, believed to be Tariq, and told him Kharal was being kidnapped. A local police team and guards overpowered the Rangers and NAB officials and arrested them. While the matter was resolved eventually, Kharal has gone missing.
Tariq told the media that he is a law abiding citizen and can never think about siding with criminals or engaging in corruption. He insisted the men who got Kharal freed from the Rangers were not his guards but were rather Kharal's friends and neighbours.
Later, SSP Larkana rushed to the police station and resolved the matter, Tariq pointed out. "Kharal is neither my frontman nor my associate. Rather, he is a party worker," he said. Tariq evaded, however, the question of Kharal driving him around in his vehicles and the duo's photos from a vacation abroad.
"My elder brother is a home minister and I am a party worker," he said. "Such false stories are harming our reputation and I appeal to the media to refrain from conducting a media trial."
Tariq has also gone to Sindh High Court's Larkana circuit bench, requesting for protection. "I am afraid the agencies may harass me over the Asad Kharal issue," he said. The court has fixed July 28 as the date for regular hearing of the petition, he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 15th, 2016.
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