Pakistan: Imran Khan’s battle with opposition-run Sindh govt hots up; Opposition alliance determined to fight

Though there is no civil war like situation in Karachi, according to the Pakistan media and all the leading Pak papers are alleging that Indian media is manufacturing news, the standoff between the ‘miltablishment-backed federal government, led by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in Islamabad and Pakistan People’s Party-run Sindh provincial government in Karachi is a reality which is hotting up.

The Sindh chief minister Murad Ali Shah made an astounding disclosure that he had been threatened by a federal minister that the provincial government would be “dismissed” if he did not file an FIR against Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) leader Capt (retd) Muhammad Safdar, husband of PML(N) vice-president Maryam Nawaz.

“A federal minister gave me an ultimatum that if the FIR [against Safdar] was not registered, the Sindh government will face its consequences. In response to their threats, I clearly said nothing is important then the respect we have for our guests. It’s even more important than the government”, said the CM.

The PPP leadership alleges that the Sindh Inspector General of Police Mushtaq Mahar was detained in the wee hours of Monday and forced to order the arrest of Safdar from a hotel in Karachi. Inquiries had been ordered parallelly, one by the CM and other by the Chief of Army Staff Qamar Javed Bajwa into the ‘Karachi incident’ leading to registration of a first information report.

Captain (retd) Safdar was scheduled to attend a meeting of the Pakistan Democratic Movement, an 11-party oppositional platform against the PTI-led federal government, headed by the Prime Minister Imran Khan Niazi. The COAS responded to a request from the PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in a news conference, to ascertain why the Sindh police chief was pressured into registering a case against the PML-N leader, arrested from the hotel room of his wife Maryam Nawaz, allegedly for disrespecting the mausoleum of the Founder of the Nation, Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah . The reason for arrest was chanting of slogans. The arrest was made under the Quaid-e-Azam’s Mazar (Protection and Maintenance) Ordinance, 1971, governing the premises — is punishable by “imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or a fine, or both”.

He was released by a court hours later. PPP later issued a statement, saying he was shocked to hear about the incident, adding that the Sindh government was not informed about the arrest. Addressing the media on Tuesday after a press conference of Sindh chief minister, Bilawal revealed that Sindh police’s top officers including IGP Mushataq Mahar had decided to go on two-month leave for being “ridiculed and mishandled”.

The PDM leaders are accusing the federal government and its agencies of having “kidnapped the provincial police chief and forced him into signing the arrest order”. Former Sindh governor Muhammad Zubair and spokesperson of Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz told some TV channels that Sindh Inspector General Police Mushtaq Mahar was coerced into arresting Safdar – a statement endorsed by the PDM leader and Jamaat Ulema-i-Pakistan (Fazlur) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and former PM Raja Pervaiz Asharaf at a press conference.

Another former PM and PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said security agencies take their orders from the PM. Speaking to media in Islamabad, he noted that institutions like the Inter-Services Intelligence and Rangers might take their orders directly. “Both the institutions report directly to the Prime Minister, No one else can do that’, he stated.

Meanwhile, peace movement leader and a strong proponent of Pakistan-India friendship, I A Rehman, in a post-editorial in Dawn greeted the PDM for holding two successful public meetings at Gujranwala and Karachi as ‘a healthy contribution to the country’s transition to a functional democracy. It has confirmed the existence of an opposition that is essential for a multiparty dispensation’. He bantered the Punjab government for having ‘earned credit for putting aside its intolerance of the opposition and respecting its right to assemble and raise its voice, though it meant extra work for the large brigade of ministers and special representatives charged with ragging the opposition.’