PTI steps up efforts to oust Sindh CM Murad

Chief minister decides to approach court against JIT report

KARACHI: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is working on a strategy to have the Sindh chief minister, Syed Murad Ali Shah, ousted from his post, in view of the Joint Interrogation Team's (JIT) report that implicates Shah as an accessory in the money-laundering scandal.

"Instead of working for Sindh, Murad worked to benefit the Omni Group," remarked PTI leader Haleem Adil Shaikh, while speaking to The Express Tribune. "We will not let this loot and plunder continue," he pledged.



Plan of action

Asked about their plan of action, Shaikh said that for now, their demand was for CM Shah to resign from his post. "Failing this, we will use any legal, Constitutional and judicial means to bring about change in Sindh," he said.

What he meant was that the PTI is working on the sidelines to muster enough support to table a no-confidence motion against the CM in the Sindh Assembly.

Currently, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) enjoys a comfortable majority in the Sindh Assembly, with 99 seats. On the other hand, the PTI has 30 seats, Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan 21 seats and the Grand Democratic Alliance 14 seats. The latter form the joint opposition in the Sindh Assembly and cumulatively hold 65 seats between them.

For the no-confidence motion to be passed, the PTI-led opposition would need a simple majority vote.

"At least 22 PPP lawmakers are in contact with us and are asking to rid the province of Murad," Shaikh, who is also the PTI's parliamentary leader in the Sindh Assembly, told The Express Tribune.

If so, the PTI will have a comfortable majority to have the no-confidence motion passed. His words were corroborated by Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Syed Ali Zaidi, who claimed that the environment of fear in Sindh province was coming to an end and PPP MPAs were making contact to join the PTI.

He was speaking to reporters in Karachi on Sunday, where he claimed that the PPP had destroyed health, education and other sectors. "However, the environment of fear is coming to an end as the masses can no longer be fooled by wearing turbans and Sindhi caps," he added.

Deliberations

According to party sources, opposition leader and PTI MPA Firdous Shamim Naqvi has started reaching out to PPP lawmakers as well as members of opposition parties to secure their vote for the no-confidence motion.

When The Express Tribune reached out to the MQM-P's Kanwar Naveed Jameel, who is the party's parliamentary leader in the Sindh Assembly, he said that all parties have the constitutional right to put forward a no-confidence motion. Asked about his party's stance, Jameel said that the decision would be taken by the party's Rabita Committee.

PPP reacts

Meanwhile, CM Shah has decided to challenge the JIT report, submitted by the Federal Investigation Agency, in the Supreme Court.

Sources privy to the development told The Express Tribune that CM has started consulting legal and constitutional experts and is expected to file a petition in the Sindh High Court soon.

"Neither has the PPP decided to remove the incumbent chief minister, nor is Murad Ali Shah stepping down," a senior PPP leader told The Express Tribune. "Unnecessary hype has been created on this issue," he added.

Serious allegations

Nevertheless, the JIT report contains some serious allegations against the chief minister for giving billions of rupees in loans and subsidies to the Omni Group. The federal government has placed his name on the Exit Control List.

Sources said that the CM, in his petition, will contend the allegations, stating that the subsidy was given to sugar mills on the directives of the Supreme Court and that he had nothing to do with the loans given by Sindh Bank.

Rumours of change

Recently, some sections of the media have reported that the PPP has principally decided to change the CM and names of Nasir Shah, Saeed Ghani and Agha Siraj Durrani were being tipped for the new chief executive of the province. Reliable sources in the PPP, however, rebuffed the rumours, calling them 'baseless reports'.

"PTI and other opposition parties are mounting pressure on the PPP to remove the CM. But there is no debate in the rank of our party to remove him," said one PPP leader.

Political coup?

Meanwhile, Sindh Information Adviser Barrister Murtaza Wahab termed the actions of the federal government 'efforts to malign the PPP leadership and an attempted political coup.

Addressing a press conference along with Sindh Minister for Works and Services and Prisons, Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, on Sunday, Wahab said that PPP Co-Chairperson Asif Ali Zardari and Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari were being targeted for exposing the inefficiencies, undemocratic conduct and anti-people policies of the federal.

"The names of those ministers, who were not even summoned by the JIT, have been put on the ECL," the adviser remarked.
He said that even after the SC's clear directives regarding the confidentiality of the JIT report, PTI members kept on leaking the contents to the public. The question arose how, even after the SC's directives, the JIT report was leaked to the media, he said.