LAHORE: Federal Water Resources Minister Faisal Vawda says there is no plan to impose governor’s rule in Sindh and sees MQM founder Altaf Husain’s hand in the murder of Ali Raza Abidi, while Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid wants the Sindh chief minister to resign.

“There’s neither any talk (in federal government circles) of imposing governor’s rule on Sindh nor dissolving the provincial assembly. What apparent is unrest in the PPP. Some (PPP) people are contacting us for making a forward bloc but we don’t want to become part of the game,” he said at a press conference with Mr Rashid on Friday.

He asserted that Mr Husain was directly involved in the murder of Mr Abidi and claimed that an internal fight among the criminals in Karachi was going on to take the control of the port city.

The minister said he hoped that the chief justice also take notice of the murder that an attempt was made to impose some criminals having murder cases against them, on the city after a “dry-cleaning process”.

He said the most remnants of the MQM supremo had been eliminated and work was on to flush out the remaining ones.

About Indus Water Commissioner Mehr Ali Shah alleged dubious role in talks with his Indian counterpart, Mr Vawda said he was taking briefings from various stakeholders on the issue and would take a decision on the future of the slot without accepting pressure from any side.

He, however, alleged that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was the real friend of his Indian counterpart Modi and defamed the judiciary and armed forces to appease his friend across the borders.

Mr Rashid demanded that Sinch Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah resign after he was blamed for having facilitated money laundering by the PPP leaders.

Asked if he would also support action against Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leaders from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in corruption cases, the railways minister said he was in favour of accountability of all the corrupt people and added that he would rather approve 14 years imprisonment for those elements in the PTI government found guilty of corruption against seven years jail term given to the former prime opposition minister.

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2018