KARACHI: As the federal government has repor­t­edly decided to appoint Muttahida Qaumi Move­ment-Pakistan’s (MQM-P) senior leader Nasreen Jalil as the governor of Sindh, paving the way for her becoming the second female governor in the province’s history after Begum Raana Liaquat Ali Khan who served in the 1970s, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has criticised this purported decision.

In his comment on social media, former federal info­r­mation minister Fawad Chaudhry said the “crime minister” has proposed the name of Nasreen Jalil as Sindh governor. He claimed that Ms Jalil had written a letter to the Indian high commissioner on June 18, 2015, and sought ‘help’ against Pakistan’s law enforcement agencies. “It is sad that the ‘mess’ in Karachi which was cleared by security institutions was being brought again.”

Former Sindh governor Imran Ismail also criticised this reported decision of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on identical grounds.

Mr Ismail said in his comment on social media that it appears that in order to become part of the present government it has become ‘imperative’ that one should be on bail or an “expert of vicious attacks” on security institutions.

Responding to criticism by the PTI leaders, MQM-P’s senior leader and federal Minister for Maritime Affairs Senator Faisal Subzwari commented on social media that the letter was written to all diplomats.

He admitted that it was the party office’s mistake that the name of Indian diplomat was not excluded from the list of diplomats. However, this letter had surfaced in 2015 and its contents were before everyone.

Secondly, Mr Subzwari added, former premier Imran Khan had torched electricity bills in protest and also given a call for civil disobedience movement in the past. He asked if the former premier and his colleagues had come to know about these things after they were ousted from power.

The MQM-P leader pointed out that the letter was written to all diplomats as well as the prime minister, president, army chief and the chief justice of Pakistan at that time. He asked as to whether this act (letter) proved one as “an agent of India”. “And you (PTI leaders) came to know about this now?”

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2022