ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Syed Ali Haider Zaidi on Tuesday has revealed that Sindh government tampered with Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report on Lyari gangwar leader Uzair Baloch to exclude certain names.
Whille addressing a joint press conference with Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz, Ali Zaidi claimed the report that was made public by the provincial government is different from the one provided to him.
The document which I am having is signed by officers of IB, ISI and other high-level officials. It mentions during investigation, Uzair Baloch had disclosed that Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Abdul Qadir Patel tasked him to kill Razzaq Commando. However, the report presented by Sindh government omits all this details, he added.
Ali Zaidi revealed, “The report unveiled by Sindh has 35 pages with signature of four people while the actual report has 43 pages and signature of six people.” He also criticized the concerned authroities for not covering key information like “why Uzair Baloch committed the murders, on whose orders and who benefited from them”.
Uzair Baloch’s gang used to behead rival gangsters and throw away their heads. This is not made-up or a story from Mexico, this was happening within Karachi, he went on to say.
Everyone has seen how Karachi is being systematically destroyed by PPP. Sindh Assembly’s contribution to Pakistan has been phenomenal but PPP has devastated this biggest city with unimaginable bloodshed, he alleged.
The minister said, “Sindh High Court (SHC) had directed to make public JIT reports on Uzair Baloch and Baldia Factory but Sindh government did not follow the orders. I approached the court again for Contempt of Court case and the next day, PPP moved Supreme Court (SC) with an appeal on this matter.”
Ali Zaidi further requested Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmed to take suo moto notice against PPP for its involvement with Uzair Baloch under Article 184 (3).
“Zaidi also went to court [because] the reports were not being released. Some parties harmed the province for their personal interest and made a ‘personal state’.”
Zaidi criticised the JIT report for not having important information such as “why Uzair Baloch committed the murders, on whose orders and who benefited from them”.
He questioned how such things could have happened without “government protection”.
The ministers then showed a video, comprising clips related to PPP, Baloch and Lyari, to the media.
Zaidi said that Baloch had confessed that he met (then) Sindh chief minister Qaim Ali Shah and Faryal Talpur and asked for removing the head money against him, which was then withdrawn on Talpur and Asif Ali Zardari’s order.
“On the last page, Baloch said that he feared they would kill him after these revelations and that Zardari and other political figures might take revenge against him and asked for protection.”
A six-member JIT was formed by the Sindh government in February 2016 to interrogate Baloch, comprising representatives of security and intelligence agencies. The JIT unanimously declared him as “black” — guilty of the crimes alleged, finding that Baloch along with his gang members was involved in a large number of murders/target killings of his rivals and innocent citizens including ethnic and “politically motivated killings”.
Talking about the JIT report on the Baldia factory fire, Zaidi said that it was written on the last page that this “gory act of Baldia factory is a glaring example of police inefficiency”.
“The JIT carried out a critique of the first investigation mentioned above and it concluded that fear and favour were the dominating factors throughout [and] affected police performance. They said another first information report (FIR) should be registered and another investigation be conducted. This is what was written in the JIT they released. This is how they have destroyed institutions,” Zaidi claimed.
A different nine-member JIT had come to the conclusion that the horrific Baldia factory fire in 2012 was not an accident but a “planned sabotage/terrorist activity” in which 259 workers were burnt alive.
Referring to another report, Zaidi said that when the report came out a Sindh police superintendent (SP) Dr Rizwan Ahmed was transferred to Shikarpur. “In this report it says, ‘detailed report against criminals, drug peddlers in Chanesar Goth Mehmoodabad’. This is my constituency.”
Zaidi alleged that the report revealed that Farhan Ghani (PPP minister Saeed Ghani’s brother) facilitated drug peddlers. “What happened when they received the report? They transferred the police official.”
He said that he had approached the Sindh High Court (SHC) for the release of the reports. “When the court directed them to release it, [the Sindh government] still didn’t release them. Then I wrote to the chief secretary. He still didn’t release them so then I filed a contempt of court petition.”
“I wanted to bring up this issue on the floor of the National Assembly as well. They were giving speeches on the budgets but they were working as leaders in JITs and were having gangsters killed.”
He claimed that the JIT he had was not the same one the Sindh government has released. “The Uzair Baloch JIT had six people — one person from special branch of the provincial government , one person from Crime Investigation Department which comes under Sindh government, one from Inter Services Intelligence which comes under the federal government, one person from Intelligence Bureau (under federal government), one from Rangers (under federal government), and one person from military intelligence (under federal government).”
“On each page all these four people (from federal government) have signed but those from Sindh government have not. What really happened? The reports were made and they made major discoveries.”
He claimed that there was a “deadlock” between the Centre and the provincial government over the report but the four people from the federal government had sent it forward.
“There is a difference between these two reports. Their report is 35 pages, the original report is 43 pages. No one from the Sindh government signed it.
“in the original report, the names of friends are written. The first 6 names [are] Dr zulfiqar Mirza, Faryal Talpur, Abdul Qadir Patel, Dr Nisar Morai, Senator Yusuf Baloch and Sharjeel Memon,” he said and alleged that these names were taken out in the report released by the provincial government.
“The political affiliation in the report signed by these four people are not in [Sindh government’s] report. On page 15, their report says ‘accused confessed murder of Jaleel through Jabbar Lahra and Baba Ladla and informed that the dead body was disposed at an unknown place by his gangsters’.
“The report which we have says ‘accused disclosed that in 2011, Qadir Patel of PPP tasked the accused to kill Razak Commando as he had murdered Edhi Amin, coordinator of Wadir Patel’.
“They removed this part from it. This report tells us why they killed him and on whose orders. It further says that in 2011 ‘Baba Ladla and Jabbar Lahra kidnapped Jaleel from Umer Lane in Lyari and informed the accused who in turn told Qadir Patel of such kidnapping on which Qadir Patel of PPP directed accused to kill Jaleel’.
“This report is full of differences, This report is full of extortion and protection. Their report did not mention any political affiliation.”
Zaidi added that the “original report” he had mentioned that “Qadir Patel, Nisar Morai, Yusuf Baloch, Uzair Muzaffar Tappi and Zulfiqar Mirza were key figures in PPP that supported Baloch”.
“It also says that after Mirza’s resignation when the situation began to go awry, Memon and Tappi had [him] do everything.”
The minister made a “passionate” appeal to Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed to take suo motu notice and to question the PPP ministers and himself about the Uzair Baloch JIT report .
“You are also from Karachi, you have seen how Karachi has been systematically destroyed,” said Zaidi, addressing the CJP.
Zaidi said that “across the board transparency should be ensured” and called for all those named in the report to be investigated. “There is peace in Karachi[now], Zarb-e-Azb was started across the country.Terrorists and their facilitators will be brought under the law, but so many facilitators are in parliament,” he said.
He claimed that he had “not made a single accusation”, adding the JIT report he presented was not conducted under the [PTI] government. He said that action needed to be taken.
“Give them a chance to prove their innocence but you cannot ignore them,” he concluded.
