Caretaker CM denies withdrawing bounty against PAC’s Uzair Baloch

The notification was issued by the outgoing government in its last days.

KARACHI: The caretaker chief minister denied on Monday claims that the government had issued a notification to withdraw the bounty against Peoples Amn Committee (PAC) chief Uzair Baloch and others.

As news channels ran breaking news of the notification, Justice (retd) Zahid Kurban Alavi’s spokesperson denied the reports. “The caretaker government, which came to power on March 21, has nothing to do with it,” he said. “The summary to withdraw the head money was approved by the outgoing chief minister, who issued a notification on March 3.” In the caretaker setup, the home ministry is being headed by chief minister.



The head money of Uzair Baloch was worth Rs2 million while Rs500,000 each were announced for Taj Muhammad alias Taju and Zahid Ladla. The head money was, in fact, withdrawn in different phases. In February, the head money for eight PAC activists, including Omar Katchi and Jabbar Jhengo was withdrawn - much to the displeasure of the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) coalition partner Muttahida Qaumi Movement, which decided to part ways.

Earlier, the government had also surrendered the reward money against 11 people, including Zaffar Baloch, a PPP leader and a senior PAC activist in November 2012.



“These all were politically motivated cases registered against us soon after an operation in Lyari last year,” said PAC’s Zafar Baloch. “The PPP leadership had promised that we will get justice before the elections and they have done it.” Zafar clarified that the government has only withdrawn the bounty and the cases are still before the courts.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 16^th, 2013.