It wasn’t just us: Memon on ties with Uzair Baloch

Says all other parties had contacts with the Lyari gangster

Pakistan Peoples Party leader Sharjeel Memon said on Monday that it wasn't just members of his party who had met with Lyari gangster Uzair Baloch in the past.

Baloch, who is accused of committing 198 murders, was arrested in a raid on the outskirts of Karachi in January 2016.

The Lyari gangster is said to have been backed by the PPP in the past. PPP leaders, however, deny this.

"Which party didn't approach [Baloch]," Memon said on Samaa TV show Nadeem Malik Live Monday. "Nawaz-league members visited [him]."

He said Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's Ghous Ali Shah was among the ones from other political parties who had met with Baloch.

There were two other panelists on the show: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's Waleed Iqbal and PML-N leader Musadiq Malik.

Anchorperson Nadeem Malik asked the panelists why almost every political figure appears to have ties with some Uzair and Rao in the country.

"When the state happens to be weakening or failing, people tend to approach hoodlums in their constituency to get things done," Malik explained.

Iqbal agreed with Malik stressing the need to break the nexus between organised crime and politics.

Malik seconded Iqbal's view saying that this nexus must not exist.