Shortly after the Lyari operation in April in which 26 people were killed, the Crime Investigation Department sent the home department a list of 24 most wanted criminals, which included PAC leaders Uzair Jan Baloch and Zafar Baloch. Their head money was worth Rs3 million each.
Around three weeks ago, MNA Faryal Talpur met PAC’s Buzurg (Elders) committee, which expressed its displeasure over the fact that the government was offering money for the arrest of PAC workers. Following this meeting, Talpur asked the home department to review the cases.
While talking to journalists at the Peoples Secretariat on Thursday, the president of the Pakistan Peoples’ Party’s Karachi division, MNA Abdul Qadir Patel, said that the head money was not announced in accordance with the law. “The government will scrutinise each case on the list and revoke any bad decisions,” he said.
Patel said that a case can be lodged against a person for the illegal possession of a pistol but head money cannot be announced. He said that there were cases on the list for which head money was offered for illegal possession of a firearm.
Patel said that Lyari was PPP’s stronghold. “We have approached our angry friends and we are trying to sort out the issues,” he added.
But PAC leader Zafar Baloch told The Express Tribune that the government has not resolved the deadlock and he has not been given any notification about the removal of the bounty. “The issue of the head money and fake cases was raised during the meetings of our Buzurg Committee with the PPP leadership. We will hold talks with the PPP if this major issue is resolved,” he added.
Baloch claimed that more than 200 fake cases were registered against residents of Lyari. “I can’t move freely. All cases against me and Uzair Baloch are fake,” he said.
Sources privy to the matter said that the home department has written the chief minister, who also holds the portfolio of the provincial home ministry. The source confirmed that all cases against and head money for PAC leaders are indeed being scrutinized.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 24th, 2012.
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Election is near, ppp want bilwal bhutto to run from lyari and would do any type of thing they can in thier hand. Media had made him HERO, while everybody saw that the police could not enter lyari. They had rockets, anti aircraft guns, KKs AND loads of tons of amunition but still he is HERO, and sooner all the cases will be dropped as the bounty drops. And then people ask me why i support MQM. i will support MQM- until you stop supporting PPP and likes- i will support MQM in Protest of yours illiteracy- allowing such people who are looting yourself for 65 years..and made sindh like desert- you dont ask them about GHOST Hospital/university/school/ in larkana-nawabshah-dadu-khairpur-badin-all the TANDOs- i will ask MQM for sepearte province- you do not care about Family Inheritence in Politics- I dont care if altaf hussain lives in London- you oblige QOUTA system over Merit system- But i will support MQM for Local Bodies governance- i will match you on every inch- and will support MQM-eventhough who cares if it is in protest. SHAME.....