Another report by Shikarpur SSP surfaces, naming Ghani

In the 2018 report, SSP Khan alleges info minister, his brother support drug peddlers

KARACHI: Another police report by Shikarpur SSP Muhammad Rizwan Khan surfaced on Friday, with allegations that Sindh Information, Archives and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani and his brother had been facilitating drug peddlers in their area of Mehmoodabad in Karachi.

In the report, compiled in January 2018, Khan claimed that Farhan Ghani, the minister's brother, was assisting drug peddlers, adding that an absconding drug dealer, Zaheer Ahmed, was also working in Saeed's office.

The report, which discusses drug-related criminals operating in Chanesar Goth, Mehmoodabad, was written when Khan was the Superintendent of Police in Jamshed Division, East Karachi.

It emerged a day after another 'secret' report by Khan was leaked, in which the police officer claimed that Sindh Energy Minister Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh used criminal connections to maintain his political position, while also trying to influence the police through appointing his relatives.

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'Baseless, false, fictitious'

In a press conference on Friday, Saeed termed the claims made in the report baseless, false and fictitious.

"If these allegations are true, I will not only give up politics but am also ready to face severe punishment," declared the minister. He appealed to Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to investigate the accusations through a competent, unbiased officer.

According to Saeed, Khan had been unhappy when the Pakistan Peoples Party leader had asked then Sindh Inspector General of Police AD Khawaja and DIG Sultan Khawaja to take action against drug dealing in his constituency of Chanesar Goth. He claimed that this was the reason the police officer had written the report.

He asserted that when Khan became the Jamshed Town SP, he tried to engage Farhan, who was then the union council chairperson, in espionage against the area's residents. "Khan also demanded furniture and eight motorcycles for the area's police check-post from my brother," he disclosed.

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'Serious allegations'

Meanwhile, reacting to the Shikarpur SSP's reports, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's parliamentary leader Haleem Adil Sheikh demanded an independent inquiry into the matter. "These are serious allegations against a sitting minister," he noted.

"The allegations levelled by SSP Khan will not be raised in the Sindh Assembly, but I will request the formation of a joint investigation team comprising of Rangers officials," he told The Express Tribune, adding that the matter should be probed through a judicial inquiry. "I cannot say if these accusations are true or false, but an independent inquiry must be opened." 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 18^th, 2020.