Sindh Ministers Saeed Ghani, Syed Nasir Hussain Shah and Imtiaz Sheikh have said that the committee formed to probe the PIA plane crash is just a drama. Addressing a joint press conference here on Tuesday, the PPP leaders have demanded that heads of PIA Arshad Malik and Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) should be removed immediately and an impartial commission of inquiry should be formed. The DNA tests of the bodies of the martyrs who have not been identified so far have been completed and Insha-Allah all the bodies will be handed over to their heirs within 10 days. They said, “the current situation of lockdown in Sindh will be maintained. However, the elites including Zafar Mirza, Punjab and KPK chief ministers are now talking about tightening the lockdown. What would the Prime Minister Imran decide on the words of these elites? Yes, they are watching. In PIA, the PPP did not recruit anyone in 2008 but regularized them. These recruitments took place during the tenure of Musharraf.” The ministers accused that the federal government is fully responsible for the locust damage, as it did not spray in the desert in April despite promises. “The Sindh government has released funds of Rs 28 Crore for locust heart spray.” Nasir Hussain Shah said that the DNA test samples of the families of all the martyrs have been taken to the Sindh government’s own laboratory which is of international level and the results will start coming from tonight. In the next 10 days, the bodies of all the martyrs will be handed over to their heirs. “Immediately after this tragic accident, the Chief Minister of Sindh and members of the Sindh Cabinet rushed to the spot. We are also grateful to the Pakistan Army, Rangers, Police, District Administration and the people of the area for their prompt response,” he said. Rescue operations began. “Within a few hours of the tragedy, I and Nasir Shah reached the Burns Ward of Civil Hospital Burns Ward to a passenger named Zubair who was injured in the plane. We were then told that three women had also been brought here, but we deliberately did not visit them as they were women but at the same time we had instructed the MS, the duty doctors present there and the health secretary to give full treatment to these women. “We have also met the families of other victims of the plane crash, but we did not take the media with us, while some people went to their families for a media session and they themselves said that they were more concerned about them,” he said. “We demand the immediate formation of a new committee of inquiry, comprising representatives of Palpa, international pilots, members of international civil aviation and Airbus, and the head of the PIA,” Ghani said. Arshad Malik and the head of civil aviation should be suspended so that they do not influence this inquiry committee. “We hold Arshad Malik and the head of civil aviation fully responsible for the tragedy,” Ghani said. Asked about locust attacks in Sindh, Nasir Hussain Shah said that the federal government and Prime Minister Imran Khan himself were fully responsible for it. He said that a meeting was held on March 6 when the locusts were in the desert, in which Prime Minister Imran Khan himself and the Chief Minister of Sindh province were on a video conference, while other senior officials were also present.
