KARACHI: The war of words between friends-turned-foes Mustafa Kamal and Dr Ishratul Ibad intensified further on Thursday when the Pak Sarzameen Party (PSP) chairman questioned the latter’s loyalty to the country and said that being a dual nationality holder the Sindh governor might leak sensitive information to other countries.

In response to the governor’s allegations that he indulged in corruption during his tenure as the Karachi mayor, Mr Kamal presented himself for accountability and asked Dr Ibad to constitute a joint investigation team or an inquiry commission to investigate all the charges against him.

The allegation that Dr Ibad possesses British nationality is more than a decade old. It emerged back in 2005 when the British media did a report that he had claimed benefits in the UK even after becoming the governor of Sindh.

Dr Ibad’s lawyer then held a press conference in Karachi and explained the legal position, but he did not respond directly to the question whether or not his client held a British citizenship.

On Thursday Mr Kamal again raised the issue at a press conference held at the PSP headquarters in PECHS to respond to the allegations levelled by the Sindh governor during his Wednesday’s media talks.

But it all began on Oct 17 with an informal media talk outside the residence of a PSP leader, where all of a sudden Mr Kamal lashed out at Dr Ibad for allegedly stopping lawmakers belonging to the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) from joining his party, indulging in massive corruption during his 13-year-old rule and providing “oxygen to MQM founder Altaf Hussain” after his Aug 22 incendiary speech.

According to him, Dr Ibad wanted to become the patron-in-chief of his party without quitting his gubernatorial office and when Mr Kamal refused, he started working against the party.

For his part, Dr Ibad rejected all the allegations, praised Mr Kamal’s predecessor former mayor Niamatullah Khan and accused the PSP chairman of indulging in corruption by awarding contracts to his favourite firms during his tenure as the mayor.

And in what appeared to be a veiled threat, he spoke about hanging the perpetrators of the May 12, 2007 mayhem, punishing those involved in the Baldia Town factory fire case as well as extorting money from its owners, and reopening of the Azeem Tariq and Hakim Said murder cases.

Speaking at Thursday’s press conference, Mr Kamal said he had no personal grudge against the governor but that Karachi and the Mohajir community were like a body and people like Dr Ibad and MQM founder Hussain were like cancer.

“How can one hold such an important office [in Pakistan] after pledging allegiance to the Queen?” he asked.

He said that during his long rule as the governor Dr Ibad did nothing for the people and instead destroyed institutions, universities and educational boards by indulging in massive corruption.

He asked why the governor had spoken up now about the May 12 incident and the Baldia factory fire case as well as the Azeem Tariq and Hakim Said murder cases.

Mr Kamal said the entire provincial administration, including Rangers and police, was answerable to the governor on May 12, 2007. If the Baldia factory case was indeed re-investigated, it would emerge that it was the governor who got the factory owners arrested and released and then sent them abroad.

He demanded that besides the May 12 and Baldia factory fire incidents, the 2006 Nishtar Park carnage in which the entire leadership of the Sunni Tehreek was targeted and the Dec 27, 2007 violence following the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto be reopened for a fresh probe because these incidents happened during Governor Ibad’s watch.

In response to a question, he said that PSP president Anis Kaimkhani’s name was not included in the new JIT report on the Baldia factory fire case.

He reiterated his demands that the government put Dr Ibad’s name on the exit control list, arrest him and initiate a transparent investigation against him.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Governor House termed the allegations levelled by Mr Kamal “false, fabricated and unfounded”.

In a statement, he said the governor was willing to take the operation being carried out against criminals under the National Action Plan to its logical conclusion.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2016