KARACHI: The inclusion of Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad’s name in the carefully edited video statement of death-row convict Saulat Mirza recorded in Machh jail indicates that he is no longer in the good books of the powers that be and in fact his days in the sprawling gubernatorial mansion in the provincial capital might be numbered.

Sure enough, rumours about the resignation of Governor Ibad — in office for a record 12 years — circulated on Thursday until he himself laid them to rest by saying that he had no immediate intention of stepping down.

The rumours may have been quashed, but questions over Mirza’s well-curated video statement — said to have been recorded hours before his hanging — lingered.

Take a look: Profile: Dr Ishratul Ibad, the sole survivor

A tweet by news anchor and blogger Mansoor Ali Khan says: “There are ‘edited’ gaps in Saulat Mirza’s interview, easily identified by any video editor. Who ws asking the questions remains a mystery.”

While almost every political opponent of the MQM was demanding either a ban on the party or a thorough investigation into Mirza’s allegations, the MQM believed that the sole purpose of the release of Mirza’s video statement is to put additional pressure on its leadership through what they called a media trial.

The central information secretary of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, Shireen Mazari, demanded that Governor Ibad be removed immediately from his office so that he could not influence the investigation into Mirza’s allegations.

In a statement released from Islamabad, she asked the federal and provincial governments to initiate and complete a thorough probe into Mirza’s “disclosures” and “remove Ishratul Ibad from the governorship if his office hinders an independent probe”.

However, Governor Ibad appeared on different news channels in the evening to explain that he was under no pressure to quit and that he was carrying out official business as per routine.

In response to a question about his relationship with the military establishment, Dr Ibad told a news anchor that the basis of his relationship was still the same.

He said that he enjoyed cordial relations with MQM supremo Altaf Hussain and he spoke with him even on Thursday. “Although I’m no longer associated with the party, but the fact of the matter is ... he [Altaf] is my elder and he can scold me.”

He dismissed Mirza’s allegations and said that he was never asked to get any criminal released.

About his resignation, he said: “This is absolutely untrue.”

But amid rumours that the federal government and the powers that be are mulling over imposition of Governor’s Rule in Sindh, people even in his party — the MQM — don’t see him to be in office in such a scenario.

While senior PML-N leader Senator Nihal Hashmi categorically denied that the federal government was considering Governor’s Rule as an option, he avoided a direct reply to a question about the fate of Dr Ibad as governor.

“We believe in democracy and know that Governor’s Rule is not a solution to problems,” he said. “Change of personalities [from political and constitutional offices] is a routine matter in a democratic culture.”

PPP hit by Mirza’s statement

By alleging that MQM inmates were facilitated during the PPP government — and, curiously, not under the Musharraf regime when an MQM minister ran the Sindh home department — Mirza’s statement brought the PPP under a cloud in a development not entirely unexpected considering that former president Asif Ali Zardari recently decided to stand by the beleaguered MQM by seeking to forge a coalition government with it.

In response to Mirza’s allegation involving the PPP, Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon told reporters at the office of Korangi Association of Trade and Industry on Thursday that the PPP-led Sindh government had never provided facilities to any terrorist.

He said talks with the MQM were under way and the question of their joining the government would be decided by the top leadership of the PPP.

He also said that there was no truth in rumours about Governor’s Rule in Sindh.

Published in Dawn March 20th, 2015

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