KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has criticised the elected government of Punjab for refusing to honour the production orders of Pakistan Peoples Party leader and MPA Faryal Talpur despite the fact that such orders were honoured by the National Accountability Bureau when she was in their custody.

Recalling the example of MNA Khawaja Saad Rafiq, who was in jail but produced in the house every time the speaker issued his production orders, the CM told a press conference that refusing to honour Ms Talpur’s order “is bound to further aggravate the sense of deprivation already prevailing in Sindh”.

Accompanied by PPP leaders Saeed Ghani, Mukesh Kumar Chawla, Sohial Anwar Siyal, Murtaza Wahab and Zia Lanjar, the CM said that the provincial assembly had passed a resolution urging him to use his good offices for production of Ms Talpur in the provincial assembly.

Says the ongoing accountability drive has been turned into a victimisation campaign

“Being the chief minister I as bound to act upon the will of the house, therefore I talked to the Punjab chief secretary, Governor to honour the production orders of the speaker of the Sindh Assembly but all my requests fall flat on the deaf ears,” he said.

He added that he tried to contact the chief minister of Punjab with the request to honour her production order but he was too busy and could not receive his calls.

“Being an elected member of the provincial assembly Faryal Talpur is entitled to represent his constituents in the house. The assembly rules empower the speaker to issue production orders of a detained/arrested member and the government is bound to honour them,” he said, adding that it was surprising that the elected government of Punjab was not honouring the production orders.

To a question, the chief minister said that no matter the “rulers” were not listening to him but “I am addressing this press conference just to inform the people of Pakistan that how their representative are denied representation in the assembly”.

He said that the PPP was not afraid of accountability but the ongoing drive had been turned into victimization. “This is against democracy and democratic institution,” he said.

He added that Ms Talpur used to attend assembly sessions and standing committee meetings when she was in NAB custody and was sent back to courts when her hearings were fixed.

“We are not asking you that you should not try us and our leaders... what we are asking you to be fair with us,” he said.

Mr Talpur’s lawyer Lanjar said that a NAB court had clearly written in its order that she should be produced in the assembly when her production order was issued and returned to the court when her case was fixed. “But these orders have not been complied with,” he said.

The chief minister said that the provincial assembly session had been summoned for Sept13 and the speaker had issued Ms Talpur’s production orders.

He demanded that the Punjab government honour her production order.

In reply to another question, the CM said that reports of the formation of a forward bloc in the Sindh Assembly were just “a bubble of hot air”.

“Every day new rumours are spread just to create uncertainty in the province but within few days those rumours die down themselves,” he said and added that MPAs and MNAs and other elected representatives of the PPP and party workers were united under the leadership of party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Asif Ali Zaradri.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2019