KHAIRPUR: Leaders of Pakistan Peoples Party Khairpur chapter have condemned what they see as mud-slinging campa­ign on social media against the party veteran and former Sindh chief minister Qaim Ali Shah.

PPP city president Syed Ali Madad Shah, general secretary Ghulam Hussain Mughal and others said at a joint press conference at local press club on Friday that some members of Voice of Khairpur and Pakistan Muslim League-Functional were behind the “media trial” of their leader.

They said that four days ago some people residing near Jilani House, Qaim Ali Shah’s residence, demolished boundary wall along the street leading to the house at the instigation of some political opponents of the former chief minister. They said that the miscreants who also fired shots into the air were trying to build shops along the street. They reported the incident to police who took into custody one Syed Awais Shah, they said.

They said the street was Mr Shah’s personal property as no one else’s door opened in it. Therefore, they said, all claims that the former chief minister had occupied public proper­ty were false. They condemned “media trial” of their leader and said that everybody knew he was a politician who had never hurt anyone’s sentiments even when he was in power and his opponents praised his character and humility. They said that their leader’s “character assassination” had greatly hurt feelings of his followers and party activists and warned if the media trial did not stop they would stage strong protest.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2019