KARACHI: Just a week after rejecting reports that he was going to step down, the longest serving governor of Sindh Dr Ishratul Ibad on Friday again dismissed media reports of his removal from the top constitutional office of the province.

The governor, who has been in office for over 12 years and has worked with three different presidents, has had to make this claim twice since March 18 following some ‘startling disclosures’ by death row prisoner Saulat Mirza.

Talking to reporters after inaugurating a health facility at the Ojha campus of the Dow University of Health Sciences, Dr Ibad cracked a joke and said he himself was hearing such reports in the media when asked whether he was being removed.

Take a look :Political unity in the face of Governor’s Rule reports

However, he gave a detailed reply to a question regarding his absence from a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at PAF Base Faisal a couple of days back. He denied that there was any high-profile meeting in which his participation was necessary. “The law and order meeting has a set format in which the participation of some people is necessary. But the meeting was not related to law and order. I have seen speculation in the media but there is no such thing.”

Dr Ibad had earlier appeared on various television channels on March 19, a day after his name was mentioned by Saulat Mirza in a carefully edited video statement of the death row prisoner, and rejected reports that he was going to step down.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2015

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