Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon on Monday said that the criticism levied by Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) on the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report regarding the Baldia factory fire was not appropriate.
Speaking to reporters outside the Sindh Assembly, Memon said, “JIT has representatives from several institutions including the police, Rangers, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Military Intelligence (MI) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) to carry out the investigations. To reject it or to say that the findings are wrong is not appropriate.”
Earlier, MQM Chief Altaf Hussain had criticized the Rangers’ JIT report on the Baldia factory fire. The report had blamed MQM for the deadly incident because of a suspect’s confessional statement.
Hussain was critical of headlines that the JIT report made in the print media and said some television channels rejoiced and MQM rivals, backed by some elements in the establishment, came out with all guns blazing.
“Call foreign detectives [to investigate the Baldia Town factory fire] and get it re-investigated. If it is proved that MQM’s men are involved then there should be no leniency and they should be hanged,” he had said.
Addressing Army Chief General Raheel Sharif, DG ISI Rizwan Akhtar, heads of IB, FIA and Sindh IG, he said that because of such reports half the country had been lost and warned that if “we don’t reform ourselves then the remaining half, God forbid, will be lost too”.
He had termed the JIT a “joint interrogation tabloid team” and said its report was prepared on the pattern of tabloids that printed spicy stuff. He had said that some anchorpersons went for an overkill to defame MQM. If an individual committed a crime it was his own act and could not be described as that of the party, he added.
