A court in Karachi on Monday indicted Leader of the Opposition in Sindh Assembly (SA) and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Haleem Adil Sheikh in a defamation case filed by Sindh Minister for Labour, Information and Human Resources Saeed Ghani, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Haleem, however, denied the charges read out before him at the Additional and Sessions Court.

The court summoned witnesses of the prosecution in the case on February 13.

Ghani, who had filed three defamation suits against Haleem and a private news channel, had taken the stance that effort was made to damage his reputation.

Infuriated over the absence of counsel for the news channel, the court ordered the concerned SHO to produce the channel’s officials on the next date of the hearing.

Saeed Ghani reiterates his innocence:

Later talking to the media, the provincial minister said a false allegation was levelled against him. “When the matter came to my knowledge, I requested the SA speaker to order an inquiry,” he said and claimed that nowhere in Dr Rizwan’s report was there a mention that he was the patron of those doing dealing in narcotics and land mafia.

Ghani further said it was unfortunate that the opposition in the provincial assembly, instead of focusing on people’s issues, was only protesting.

He said the federal government, which should have provided relief to the people, had done exactly the opposite by letting loose inflation at them.

“If you (the opposition) are so much fond of protesting, then you better protest on the hike in gas, electricity and petrol prices instead,” Sindh minister said, adding truth of the matter was that the opposition parties, especially the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), were protesting to hide their ‘incompetence’.

Reporter: Mumtaz Jamali