- Opposition-baiting no substitute for good performance
Last week Federal Minister Ali Haider Zaidi waved papers in the National Assembly, posing as if these were pages of a JIT (joint investigation team) report accusing the PPP top leadership of patronizing Lyari gangster Uzair Baloch. Mr Zaidi claimed that a sitting PPP MNA gave instructions to Mr Baloch. Despite protests from the PPP MNAs, the Speaker gave Mr Zaidi enough time to rant against the top PTI leadership, claiming that he was quoting from a JIT report.
On Monday the Sindh government made public three reports prepared by different JITs about the activities of Uzair Baloch, the Baldia factory fire of 2012 and the crimes committed by the former Chairman of the Fishermen’s Cooperative Society, Nisar Morai. Earlier the PPP Sindh government had challenged Mr Zaidi to produce any evidence that might incriminate the top PPP leadership.
Mr Zaidi accuses the Sindh government of failing to publish the full report signed by all the six members of the JIT on Mr Baloch . It appears from Mr Zaidi’s claims that there are two JIT reports, one signed by four members belonging to federal agencies and the other by two members from Sindh. One wonders how Mr Zaidi came into possession of the report bearing the signatures of members of federal agencies. But even in this report there is little to frame a case against Mr Zardari or MNA Faryal Talpur. The report in the possession of Mr Zaidi however alleges that a sitting PPP MNA had advised Uzair Baloch to kill a man for murdering his coordinator.
Meanwhile the conclusions drawn in the remaining two JIT reports have enough to embarrass the PTI. The report on the Baldia Town factory fire calls the tragic incident a terrorist act and holds the then head of MQM’s Karachi Tanzeemi Committee, Hammad Siddiqi, and Rehman Bhola responsible for the horrendous crime. The MQM is now PTI’s crucial ally. Nisar Morai, according to the report was a friend of Dr Zulfiqar Mirza, whose family is a part of GDA.
The PTI it appears has little inclination and less expertise to resolve the grave challenges facing the country. It has however mastered the art of maligning its opponents. What will matter at the hustings next time, however, is the performance of the party.
