PTI demands chief minister's resignation, PPP hits back

Backed by JIT report, PTI leaders accuse CM Shah of plundering public money for Zardari and his aides

KARACHI: A day after the federal government announced to place the names of the top Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leadership on the Exit Control List (ECL), the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) Sindh chapter demanded the resignation of Sindh chief minister Syed Murad Ali Shah.

Addressing a joint press conference in the premises of the Sindh Assembly on Friday, PTI MPAs Khurram Sher Zaman and Haleem Adil Shaikh contended that billions of rupees were illegally obtained in loans from the Sindh government-owned Sindh Bank. CM Murad, who was first the finance minister and then the CM played a key role in this transaction, they claimed.

"Murad Ali Shah was also involved corruption in the Dadu and Thatta sugar mills," said Shaikh. "The CM has proved to be a thief. We demand his resignation and will table a no-confidence motion against him," added Shaikh, who is also PTI's parliamentary leader in the Sindh Assembly.

Law and order much better in Sindh compared to other provinces: CM Murad

According to Shaikh, the incumbent chief minister had doled out illegal benefits to the Omni Group and its owner, Anwar Majeed, at the cost of taxpayers' money. Criticising the PPP's jalsa to commemorate the death anniversary of Benazir Bhutto, he said, "It was not a power show, but a gathering of patwaris and government employees." He demanded that the reports of JITs in the Baldia factory fire and Uzair Baloch be made public.
The PTI leader also questioned how Anwar Majeed had established 83 companies within a short span of time.

"When he started the business, he only had two companies. One wonders how he set up 81 other companies within a few years," he said, adding that PPP leaders, including Asif Ali Zardari and Faryal Taplur, have now been exposed.

The PTI leader claimed that many PPP MNAs and MPAs were in contact with the PTI, because they were fed-up of Zardari's politics who has hijacked the party and looted public money.

He asked Murad Ali Shah to inform the people of Sindh about Ali Hassan Zardari, who used to sell milk in the streets and is now a billionaire. He demanded a JIT to probe the billions of rupees spent on development projects in Sindh since 2008.

On the other hand, Khuram Sher Zaman, who has recently filed a petition to disqualify Zardari, said that the Sindh government has always turned a blind eye to these scams.

"We have tabled a motion on the matter of the Sindh Bank scam. Murad Ali Shah, who has facilitated the PPP leadership and their friends in looting public money, should immediately tender his resignation," he said, adding people of Sindh have always supported the PPP, which has failed to deliver. "In future, the PTI will form a government in Sindh," he remarked.

PPP's reaction

Adviser to Sindh Chief Minister on Information, Law and Anti-corruption, Barrister Murtaza Wahab has said that no decision had been taken to change the chief minister and CM Shah, along with other PPP leaders, would face all "frivolous and fabricated allegations contained in the JIT report and prove their innocence in the court of law".

Addressing the media on Friday, Wahab said that no one could be asked to step down merely on the basis of an inquiry, adding that there were inquiries pending against the Prime Minister, Defence Minister, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister and others, but none of them had resigned.

In response to a question, he said that the Sindh government could not exert its influence on the cases as the inquiry was being carried out by the federal government's agencies and institutions. Wahab added that the Sindh government and PPP were convinced that they were dragged into the cases to malign them for the sake of political point scoring.

"PTI has failed to gain power in Sindh through democratic and legal way and is now using these tactics to pressurise the Sindh government. But their dream will not come true," he remarked.

He said PPP government had faced such kinds of pressures in the past and was quite prepared to face it again. "PPP is a political reality and everyone has to accept it. We will exercise our political and democratic rights within the Constitutional ambit and will not do politics of violence and shutting down cities and blocking roads like the PTI in the past," he said.

According to Barrister Wahab, engineered material had been incorporated into the JIT report, which was based on ill intentions.

He said that it was a basic requirement of the law to summon people who were mentioned in any inquiry, but the incumbent chief minister, former chief minister and other ministers whose names were on the list, were never summoned by the JIT.

"Those who believe the PPP is losing is ground in Sindh are living in fool's paradise. People of the province are with us and they have given their full mandate to the PPP in last general elections," he concluded.