KARACHI: The media adviser to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman, Imran Ismail, on Saturday approached the Civil Lines police station to lodge an FIR against Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, two ministers and others on manslaughter and murder charges in the wake of deaths from the recent heatwave.

In his application submitted to Civil Lines SHO Waqar Ahmed Tanoli, the PTI leader said he wanted to lodge an FIR against the Sindh government for ‘criminal negligence and cold blooded murder’ of innocent citizens of Karachi.

Mr Ismail stated that more than 2,000 people died due to the alleged criminal negligence of the chief minister, local government minister Sharjeel Memon, health minister Jam Mehtab, Karachi Municipal Corporation administrator Saqib Soomro and chairman of the provincial disaster management authority Salman Shah.

The PTI leader said when people had been dying from heatstroke, shortage of water and electricity, the so-called rulers of Sindh were ‘enjoying Iftar parties’ and were ‘clueless’ about the pain and misery of the innocent people and their families.

“They failed to perform their duties and hence were responsible for the murder,” said Mr Ismail. He asked the police to register the FIR under Sections 322 (manslaughter) and 302 (murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code against them.

Later, the PTI leader told the media outside the Civil Lines police station that the SHO informed him that he would seek guidelines from his senior officers after this weekend to decide about the FIR.

Mr Ismail, who recently contested the by-election on a national assembly seat from Azizabad, said he was holding consultation with PTI’s legal experts for the registration of the case. If the FIR was not lodged within 72 hours, they would approach the judiciary and stage a sit-in outside CM House, he added.

He said that the local government minister had publicized government performance through advertisements. If he had used the ads to create awareness, many lives could have been saved, the PTI leader said.

During the past seven years, the Sindh government failed to provide drinking water to people, he said. The last year situation in Thar had exposed government performance, he added.

The PTI leader asked PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari to come out from his home and don’t take the threats that the Taliban wanted to attack him seriously. He said he wanted to show Mr Bhutto-Zardari that even graveyards were not spared due to the so called ‘China-cutting’, as hundreds of thousands of rupees had been demanded from the families of heatwave victims for their burial.

He said he also wanted to show the PPP chairman that even water hydrants in Karachi had been sold.

He said the government had purchased a helicopter for the PDMA but it failed to perform.

He also warned K-Electric to improve their performance otherwise, the PTI would also lodge protest against the power utility.

Mr Ismail quoted the federal power minister as saying that Karachi was not within their mandate. This clearly indicated that federal government, too, did not own Karachi, he added.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play