Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh on Monday has said that he was assaulted whilst in jail and had to be taken to the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) in Karachi.
In a video shared by the PTI Karachi chapter on Twitter, he claimed that 50-60 thugs had tortured and attacked him and other PTI workers. Sheikh was imprisoned after he was brought up on terrorism charges for allegedly inciting violence during the by-polls in the PS-88 constituency of Malir.
It is pertinent here to mention that an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi had sent the PTI leader to jail on judicial remand till February 25 on Friday.
The ATC had heard a case related to aerial firing and creating a disturbance in by-elections in Karachi’s PS-88 constituency on February 16. The counsels representing the accused had apprised the ATC judge regarding the recovery of a poisonous snake from the room of Sheikh, which had purportedly been planted by the Sindh government in an act of political revenge.
The PTI leader’s spokesperson Muhammad Ali Baloch had said on the occasion that the Sindh government will be responsible if anything happened to the PTI leader.
During the hearing, the judge had said: We are sending you to jail and you will be safe there”.
According to the details, Jinnah Hospital Orthopaedics Director AR Jamali arrived at the NICVD and completely examined the Sindh Assembly opposition leader. Undergoing the examination, torture marks were found on the shoulder, neck, hand and other parts of his body. He will now be treated at Jinnah Hospital.
“I was told yesterday that Samir Mir Shaikh is being kept in a phansi gath (hanging cell) like me and they are treating him inhumanely,” Sheikh explained in the video. “Five senior colleagues of mine in the Malir [District] Jail since Feb 7, workers of the PTI and my constituency — Iqbal Shah, Usman Bugti, Aziz Bhatti, Rao Yousuf, Khalil Mehsud’s son Nauroze Mehsud — are being tortured in jail.”
The PTI leader said that Samir was being treated in such a way only because “he knows the PPP’s thieves and looters from within”.
After meeting Sheikh in the hospital, PTI lawmaker Khurram Sher Zaman feared that the PTI leader’s life is in danger and said that Prime minister Imran Khan has been informed about the situation.
He went on to add: “The rulers of Sindh have become selfish. A snake was found in the opposition leader’s cell, whereas, goons tortured the PTI lawmaker in jail.”
Similarly, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry on Monday demanded the immediate release of Sheikh in a tweet, wherein the minister said that arrest was a political case.
The attack on the PTI opposition leader by goons in highly condemnable, he added.
As these accusations of corruption fly from the members of the ruling party, Sindh Governor Imran Ismail said that PTI MPA and leader Sheikh had been tortured in jail, and alleged that the jailor had released edited CCTV footage.
He said that the current lawlessness in the province had reminded him of Altaf Hussain’s era and ruled out any possibility of imposition of governor rule in the province.
Addressing a news conference at the Governor House, Imran Ismail said that he wrote a letter to Prime Minister regarding lawlessness in the province and recommended to change the provincial Inspector General of Police (IGP).
“IGP Sindh Mushtaq Ahmed Mahar has failed to perform his duties and is a biased officer”, the governor said.
He said that Sindh IGP and police have begun working as a party. Senior superintendents (SSPs) were taking instructions directly and the police officers were taking illegal actions against members and workers of opposition parties, he maintained.
The officers must remember they were the servants of state not of any political party, he added.
To a question, the Sindh governor replied that Sindh IGP was following the instructions of the provincial government and was not doing justice with his position.
“Sindh Police nominates hundreds of unidentified people in a single FIR [first information report] to take advantage and arrest innocents”, he said.
The governor said that the Sindh chief secretary and IGP were the representatives of the federal government and both the officers were bound to coordinate with the federal government.
They must play the role of a bridge between both the governments, Ismail stressed.
Taking shots at the dominant party in the province, Federal Minister for Communications and Postal Services Murad Saeed on Monday said that the PPP, under the guise of democracy, has claimed Sindh province as their private property.
Talking to media outside Parliament House, while flanked by Parliamentary Secretary Religious Affairs Aftab Jahangir, MNA Aamir Liaqaut Hussain, MNA Captain Jameel Ahmed Khan, MNA Alamgir Khan and MNA Faheem Khan, he said that the Sindh government is victimizing the opposition.
He said that key figurehead of Karachi underworld Uzair Baloch reveals on whose orders extortion and murders were committed, adding that according to the Uzair Baloch report, the gangster had confessed that he had beheaded the people and burnt the bodies by using a police mobile, adding that criminal was inducted in Sindh Police.
Murad, referring to the attack on a private news channel the other day, stated that nobody was taking the name of those involved in the crime. He also claimed that a Saama TV reporter was tortured.
He said that the federal government would speak about the corruptions in the health sector of Sindh.
“When we raise voices about the absence of teachers from schools in Sindh province or say that Sindh development budget went into fake accounts PPP starts crying,” he said.
Earlier, sitting MNA Captain Jamil Ahmed Khan announced that PTI would organise a protest rally in front of Karachi Press Club on Tuesday.
He said that PPP was victimising PTI workers. He also criticised the role of the Sindh police.
He said that the snake was deliberately left in the cell under a conspiracy to kill Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Sheikh.
