'PTI using Uzair Baloch report to divert attention'

As the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) continue their verbal slugfest over the joint investigation team (JIT) report on Lyari gangster Uzair Baloch, Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani accused the PTI on Friday of "making an issue" of a matter that was pertinent five years ago to divert attention from other problems, such as the coronavirus pandemic, petrol price hike and brewing wheat crisis.

Quoting Maritime Affairs Minister Ali Haider Zaidi, he said that the federal minister claimed that he received the JIT report, enclosed in an envelope, from an unidentified man on a motorcycle.

"Zaidi needs to identify the motorcyclist," he said, claiming that the federal minister knew who the man was.

In a tit-for-tat response to PTI's allegation against the PPP on the matter, he said that the former was presenting its arguments on grounds of Baloch's confessions to scores of murders. If such was the case, he added, then PTI MPA Israrullah Gandapur's brother, too, had accused Kashmir Affairs Minister Ali Amin Gandapur of being involved in Israrullah's murder. "Why is the PTI silent on that?" he questioned.

Ghani noted that three JIT reports, on Baloch, Nisar Morai and the Baldia factory fire, had been released, but the PTI was silent on the Baldia factory inferno report. He claimed this was because the ruling party's allies were named in the report as culprits.

Alleging that the PTI, too, among other parties, had approached the Lyari kingpin to offer him party membership, he claimed that a committee comprising President Arif Alvi, Sindh Governor Imran Ismail and Zaidi was formed for the purpose back in the day.

The education minister went on to say that members of the Peoples Amn Committee, led by Baloch, had participated in PTI's sit-ins, with one among them - Habib Jan, who was also named in the JIT report - even addressing a sit-in via telephone.

K-Electric

In response to a question regarding K-Electric (KE), the education minister said that the PTI used to accuse PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari of having shares in the Abraaj Group - KE's parent company - but now it was out in the open that Prime Minister Imran Khan was linked with the group's founder and CEO, Arif Naqvi.

Calling PTI's protest against KE "a pretense," he maintained that it would not take any action against the Abraaj Group.

"If the PTI is so concerned about the plight of Karachiites, then it should nationalise KE," he added.

Cleaning of nullahs

Earlier, addressing the press conference, Sindh Local Government Minister Syed Nasir Hussain Shah claimed the Sindh government had started cleaning nullahs ahead of the monsoon this year, but the coronavirus pandemic delayed the exercise.

Giving an update on the cleaning progress, he said that the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) had cleaned all 38 major nullahs under its supervision and removed sludge from all choking points.

The local government minister further said that his department, the KMC and National Engineering Services Pakistan were working together to clean all of the city's drains.

Besides, district municipal corporations, municipal commissioners and deputy commissioners, too, had been instructed to collaborate for cleaning drains in their respective areas, he added.

The local government minister said that Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah had released additional funds for the purpose.