Faryal's patronage and Zardari's job offers: 10 takeaways from PTI minister's 'original' Uzair Baloch JIT.

Byline: Adeel Ahmed

The joint investigation team (JIT) report made public by the Sindh government on Monday evening detailing the criminal doings of alleged Lyari gang warfare kingpin Uzair Jan Baloch contained some stunning revelations, including that of espionage, murder and a city held hostage through bullets and terror.

What it did not include, however, was an explicit or direct link between Baloch's umpteen alleged misdeeds and the top ranks of the PPP - the party that has occupied Sindh's corridors of power for more than a decade. And PTI's Minister for Shipping and Maritime Affairs Ali Haider Zaidi thinks the provincial government is not coming clean.

On Tuesday, he flourished before the media a JIT report of his own, saying it was the "original", while the one released by the Sindh government was a different version.

Zaidi criticised the JIT report made public by the Sindh home department for allegedly omitting important information about the motives behind the killings carried out by Uzair Baloch, and on whose orders they were executed. He questioned how such things could have happened without "government protection".

However, it is important to note that the report shared by Zaidi, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, states that it is one of two parts of the Uzair Baloch JIT report and that the part presented by the minister would be "kept confidential" until asked for by the "competent authority".

PPP, in reaction to Zaidi's allegations, held its own presser and inquired as to who the source of this document was, given that it wasn't submitted to the Sindh government and was signed by only four members of the six-member JIT.

Speaking to Dawn.com, Zaidi said that the JIT report he had shared carried the same statements as those recorded by Baloch before a judicial magistrate.

While the official status of the report shared by Zaidi remains uncertain, it does contain a number of damning 'revelations'. Here are 10 key takeaways:

1) Uzair Baloch's family was affiliated with the PPP and he himself remained a part of the PPP "since his childhood". Some of his "friends" listed in the report include former home minister and estranged PPP leader Dr Zulfikar Mirza, ex-president Asif Ali Zardari's sister Faryal Talpur, PPP MNA Abdul Qadir Patel, former chairman of the Fishermen Cooperative Society Nisar Morai, Senator Yousaf Baloch and former Sindh minister Sharjeel Memon. It was "on the instructions of PPP leadership" that Uzair...