CM Shah meets CJP, says providing information is job of institutions
During his meeting with the chief justice, CM Shah said a number of provincial issues were discussed
October 27, 2018
KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah met with Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar in his court chamber on Saturday.
Addressing media following his meeting with the chief justice, Murad Ali Shah clarified that he had not been summoned by the top judge.
“It was incorrectly reported in the media that I had been summoned. I had not been summoned. Chief Justice had requested for a meeting with me,” the chief minister reiterated.
He said the meeting was not held over the purported lack of cooperation by the Sindh government with the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) probing the mega money laundering scam.
“I discussed [a number of] provincial issues with the Chief Justice. I [also] told the Chief Justice about the JIT’s complaints. Providing information is the responsibility of the institutions, not the chief minister’s,” Murad said.
He shared that the JIT had asked for details regarding irrigation works and services, but it had given the provincial government only two days’ time to provide the information.
“How can we provide the data [in such short time]? It’s not like a button that [you can] press to provide the records.”
Murad said the chief justice congratulated him on his re-election as the province’s chief minister. He also appreciated the conditions of hospitals in Karachi and said they were better in comparison to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s hospitals, the minister shared.
Declining to offer any further details, Murad said he also discussed the National Accountability Bureau with the top judge.
Media reports on Friday suggested that the chief justice had asked to meet the chief minister over the JIT’s complaint that the Sindh government was not cooperating in the money laundering and fake bank accounts case.
The Supreme Court had resumed hearing the case against fake bank accounts that were used to launder over Rs100 billion out of Pakistan, at its Karachi Registry on Friday.
The Federal Investigation Agency is investigating 32 people in relation to money laundering from fictitious accounts, including former president Asif Ali Zardari and his sister Faryal Talpur.
Zardari’s close aide Hussain Lawai was arrested in July in connection with the probe. The former president's another close aide and Omni Group chairman, Anwar Majeed, and his son, Abdul Ghani Majeed, were also arrested by the FIA in August. Lawai, Majeed and his son remain under custody.
Earlier this week, FIA sources informed that the mastermind of the money laundering and fake accounts case, Aslam Masood, had been arrested by the Interpol from Jeddah.
