Pinning responsibility: PTI seeks FIR against Sindh government

Party leaders blame provincial govt, K-Electric for heatwave deaths

KARACHI: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has filed an application for the registration of an FIR against the Sindh government for the mounting death toll of the killer heatwave that has gripped the city.

Party leaders, including Imran Ismail, Faisal Vawda, Khurrum Sher Zaman and Dawa Khan Sabir, visited the Civil Lines police station on Saturday to file the application. Under the law, the police are bound to register an FIR over the application or reject it within 72 hours of receiving it.

According to Sabir, the PTI information secretary, the Sindh government is responsible for the deaths in the metropolis. Adding that the party also held K-Electric responsible, he claimed that the power utility as an institution came under the control of the government.

Meanwhile, Ismail told The Express Tribune that the PTI had filed the application against the provincial chief minister and the relevant ministers.

"The police must nominate Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah, [information minister] Sharjeel Memon, [health minister] Jam Mehtarb Dahar, Karachi Metropolitan Corporation administrator Saqib Soomro and the chairperson of the provincial disaster management authority in the FIR," he said, adding that if the FIR was not registered within 72 hours, the party would stage a protest.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 28^th, 2015.