27 February 2005	Sunday	17 Muharram 1426

HYDERABAD, Feb 26: Sindh Chief Minister Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim has said that he has no worries as he enjoys support of the president and added that it is his prerogative to sack any of his cabinet ministers if he is not satisfied with his working.

Accusing Imtiaz Sheikh of interpolation and forgery in the land record of 1936, the chief minister said that the Anti-Corruption Establishment was conducting inquiry against the former Sindh revenue and political affairs minister, and not the prime minister's inspection commission.

Dr Rahim was talking to journalists at the residence of educationist Ahmed Mohammad Kazi here on Saturday, where he had come to inquire after the health of Mr Kazi.

Answering a question whether he would accept findings of the prime minister's inspection commission if they were against his decision, he said that the commission was looking into the episode from political point of view.

'I would not say that I don't have confidence in the commission,' he said and added that he would send his report to the president and the prime minister.

The chief minister said that there was an air of goodwill between the provincial and federal governments that was why the commission was also collecting details of the affair.

He said that it was his discretion to sack any minister if he was not satisfied with his working and added that he had been elected as the chief minister by the MPAs and only they could remove him.

'I have and need the support of the president and when he is with me, I need not worry. I was selected by the president and I am pursuing his policy of eradication of corruption,' Mr Arbab remarked.

'Other institutions are seized of the issue and everything would be clear soon,' he remarked.

The chief minister expressed unawareness about re-arrest of Abdul Hafeez Shoro, who was recovered in a raid by a court official at the office of ACE director Sultan Khawaja in Karachi. However, he said that Mr Shoro could be re-arrested for investigation as he was main culprit in the forgery scandal.

He rejected reports suggesting that governor's rule was in the offing in Sindh and clarified that the Sindh Assembly was intact and treasury members were with him.

He said that he was not patronising bureaucracy but he had killed two birds with one stone because Sheikh had been a bureaucrat in the past.

He said that level of impropriety in society stood at 80 to 90 per cent and you could not rectify the situation in one go.

He claimed that the Sindh government was better than its predecessors as far as corruption was concerned.

Regarding corruption in other departments, he said that he could not open Pandora's box as it was not having a joyride.