Minister asks Sindh govt to suspend IG over Safdar’s arrest

Federal Minister Ali Zaidi asked on Monday the Sindh government to suspend the provincial inspector-general of police and his subordinate officials for lodging an FIR against Captain (retired) Safdar in Karachi.

“I didn’t lodge this FIR,” Ali Zaidi, the minister for maritime affairs, told Nadeem Malik. “The IG Sindh, Sindh police and Brigade police station must have lodged it.”

The minister said that the PPP government in Sindh should suspend the IG, DIG, SSP and SHO if they disobeyed orders.

Captain (r) Safdar, PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz’s husband, was arrested from Avari Towers hotel in Karachi Monday morning on charges of sloganeering at Quaid-e-Azam’s tomb on Sunday.

A court in Karachi, however, granted him bail Monday afternoon and he has left for Lahore with his wife.

Rana Sanaullah, a PML-N leader, told Malik that Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has ordered an inquiry over the arrest of Captain (r) Safdar and he will take action against the officials.

It emerged on Monday that Waqas, the man who filed the complaint against Captain (r), was himself an absconder in a case. The complainant is the nephew and coordinator of PTI’s Sindh leader Haleem Adil Sheikh.

Zaidi said he doesn’t have any information about the complainant but he added that Waqas should have been arrested if he was an absconder.

“If he is an absconder, why wasn’t he arrested?” asked Zaidi. “He should have been arrested when he went to the police station to file an FIR.”