KARACHI - Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Tuesday expressed strong reservations on the report submitted by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) against former president Asif Ali Zardari during a hearing at the Supreme Court’s registry in Lahore in the fake bank accounts case pertaining to money laundering of billions of rupees.

Reportedly, he and Sindh Governor Imran Ismail paid rich tributes to Qaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and laid floral wreaths at his mausoleum in Karachi.

During his talk to the media, he termed findings of the report as ‘controversial’ and claimed that his party was not afraid of facing such trials in the court.

Shah said that he was surprised to note that the JIT report was leaked to media much before it was submitted in the Supreme Court. “A TV anchor conducted my interview on JIT report at least five days before it was officially submitted in the court,” he said and added “to leak the JIT report was wrong and against the directives of the Supreme Court.”  He hoped that the Supreme Court and other concerned agencies would take necessary action against the officers who leaked the JIT report.

To another question, the chief minister said that he has gone through the JIT report but there was nothing serious against him in which he could be prosecuted. “We, as a government have done each and everything as per law,” he said and giving an oblique reference of subsidies said that summaries were moved and approved as per rules [of business] and the cabinet also approved them and the assembly had enacted the law and this has been acknowledged in the [JIT] report.

Murad Ali Shah said that the JIT has also conceded that they could not complete the investigation within two months even then fingers of accusation have been raised [against the government], is quite surprising for him.

Importantly, the apex court has ordered the former president to submit a reply by December 31 and banned the sale, purchase and transfer of properties owned by three business groups including the Zardari Group, Bahria Town and Omni Group.

To a question about recent incident of target killing in Nazimabad, the chief minister said that it was being probed thoroughly and the culprits would be brought to book. “After the incident of Army Public School, Peshawar we had launched an intelligence based well-organized targeted operation against terrorists, target killers and extortionists in the city,” he said and added our army, Rangers, police and the intelligence agencies worked day and night and eliminated all the terrorists and their networks, otherwise every day dozens of people were killed in the target in the city, he recalled.

“Under Bilawal Bhutto’s leadership, we will serve the country and Sindh province in an effective manner,” he said further.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that since 2008-9 the provincial government has been giving subsidies on different items such as tractor, electricity, wheat and sugarcane just to encourage production and consumption.

He said that the provincial government had given subsidy to power plants to reduce loadshedding duration, gave subsidy on tractors to strengthen small farmers, gave subsidy of Rs12 on sugarcane and has been giving subsidy on wheat since long. He added that there was a prolonged load-shedding of 18 to 20 hour in the province, therefore power plants were given subsidy so that loadshedding duration could be controlled and what was wrong into it, he questioned and said “all this has been approved within the ambit of the law,” he said.

Meanwhile, on the occasion, Imran Ismail termed December 25th as the day to re-emphasise patriotism backed by the Qaid’s vision and acting accordingly.

“We will try for uplift of development of the country where youths will have better career opportunities and the green passport is respected by the world,” he remarked.