Sindh police told to provide security to Zulfiqar Mirza

Security protocol was withdrawn after anti-PPP statements, he claims.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) directed the provincial government and the provincial police chief to provide adequate security to the estranged Pakistan Peoples Party leader and former home minister, Zulfiqar Mirza, and his family members according to their entitlement.

A division bench also directed the provincial chief secretary, the home secretary, Sindh IG, Badin SSP and others to submit their replies by April 28 regarding the withdrawal of the security for Mirza and his family.

The petitioner said he has served as home minister from 2008 to 2011 while his wife, Dr Fehmida Mirza, is currently a sitting MNA while his son, Barrister Hasnain Mirza, is a sitting member of the Sindh Assembly.

His lawyer, Ashraf Samon, said the provincial government had provided security to the petitioner and his family through Badin SSP and Karachi SSP due to threats to their lives. On April 21, Badin SSP Khalid Mustafa Korai and his line officer, Ashiq Ali Memon, tried to withdraw police guards from his Badin residence.

"It has come to the knowledge of the petitioner that the deployed security guards of the police department had been withdrawn by the [chief secretary] and its officials on verbal orders of Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and MNA Faryal Talpur," the lawyer claimed.

On the same day, Security Karachi SSP Usman Bajwa had also called back the security guards from the petitioner's residence in Karachi apparently, according to the lawyer, on the directions of the provincial government, which received verbal directives of Zardari and Talpur.

Mirza said he had disclosed to the media some information on corruption in the Sindh government and the PPP leadership, because of which, the government withdrew the security guards.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 24^th, 2015.