PPP MPs concerned over ‘killings’ by CCD

LAHORE: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) MPAs in Punjab Assembly have voiced serious concern over the ‘extrajudicial killings’ being perpetrated by the Crime Control Department (CCD).

They demanded CCD operate in Katcha area for the elimination of criminal elements in that part of Punjab. MPA Shazia Abid erupted in anger over the actions of the CCD alleging that extrajudicial killings are taking place in the provincial capital. ‘The CCD has been given such sweeping powers that they are carrying out a massacre,’ she said.

She said people are abducted and later killed in places like Rahimyar Khan or Sadiqabad, and yet such actions are being praised which is shameful. ‘We were mourning the issue of ‘forced disappearances’, and now the CCD has killed over a thousand people,’ Shazia alleged.

She claimed that CCD head Sohail Zafar Chattha openly admits to every such operation and proudly boasts about the department’s so-called ‘achievements’ since its formation. ‘The CCD has erased the line between the accused and the convicted,’ she said.

Shazia added that the focus of authorities should be on reforming the police and the judicial system. ‘Whenever the PMLN comes into power, the state turns into a police state,’ she said.

Responding to her remarks, Raja Shaukat remarked many of those killed were absconders wanted in cases of kidnapping, robbery and drug trafficking. ‘No department was willing to deal with them, so their cases were referred to the CCD’, he remarked. ‘CCD and police personnel have also been martyred. The state has not given any institution the authority to carry out mass killings’ he said.

PPP MPA Mumtaz Ali said that if the CCD is working to maintain law and order in Punjab, it should also be deployed in Rahimyar Khan and the riverine areas.

He urged that the police should help end longstanding tribal feuds so that peace and stability can be restored. If the tribal enmities are resolved, peace will prevail, and people will once again be able to conduct their businesses safely. He added that his colleague MPA Chaudhry Naeem has been imprisoned.

Meanwhile, the PA witnessed a heated exchange of views during the Question Hour related to the Communication and Works (C&W) Department, as lawmakers raised objections to the response given by Provincial Minister for C&W Malik Sohaib Ahmed Bharath.

Govt MPA Ahsan Raza objected to the minister’s reply, saying that the House was being misled. ‘The road from Kasur to Okara has not been completed. Are we just supposed to sit in our offices while the CM’s team remains invisible in the field’ he remarked. Responding to the criticism, Sohaib Bharath said if members feel they are being misled, the very purpose of this House is to ensure accurate answers. ‘Let’s conduct a voting on the C&W Dept if there are doubts. Visit our department we are always ready to provide responses’ said the minister.

Ahsan Raza said, ‘Tell us, has the minister ever visited the roads of Chunian, Khudian or Kasur’.

He said Punjab CM was serving the people but how many visits has the Secretary of C&W made to his constituency. PA Speaker Malik Ahmad Khan remarked that the road from Mustafabad to Kasur seemed a ‘road of the poor and the orphans.’