KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Wednesday called into question the authenticity of Uzair Baloch’s JIT report that Federal Minister for Shipping and Maritime Affairs Ali Zaidi billed as “original” at a presser yesterday.
He said the Sindh government didn’t desire to make the JIT reports of Uzair Baloch and other high-profile cases public because it believed that releasing these reports would compromise the chances of the arrest of all those absconding accused named in the reports.
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“The JIT report has the names of whoever was involved [in criminal activites] along with Uzair Baloch. They became all aware of their names being in the report because of the release of the report.”
CM Murad was responding to questions put to him by media persons outside the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) office in Islamabad, where he appeared before a combined investigation team of the bureau for questioning in a graft case.
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He said Ali Zaidi went public with a copy of the JIT that, according to him, didn’t bore the signatures of all security officials who were part of the probe team, which piled political pressure on the government to release the original reports.
The chief minister said the report that the government made public has the signatures of all members of the JIT.
He quoted the minister as saying on a TV show that someone came to his residence on a motorcycle and dropped off a JIT report. He termed Zaidi’s behaviour “highly irresponsible” and “unbecoming” of a member of the National Assembly and a federal minister.
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“I think as this is my opinion that they want to help the perpetrators,” the chief minister said, adding the federal minister should have verified the authenticity of the report given to him before making it public.
