PA summons IG over complaints against police

LAHORE:Punjab Assembly across the divide got united against Punjab police on Monday over its misconduct with common citizens and elected representatives whereas the Speaker summoned Punjab IG to appear before the House and explain his position over the issue.

“The House will take up no business until the IG appears before it and this issue is resolved,” remarked Speaker Punjab Assembly Ch Pervaiz Elahi while addressing the House over the complaint of police misbehaviour lodged by Deputy Speaker Mir Dost Mohammed Mazari through a privilege motion.

“The House could not run in this way, we have to maintain, protect and restore our dignity,” said the speaker who immediately ordered formation of a committee chaired by him and comprising members from both sides.

The House also faced adjournment for more than two hours the same day until Additional IG Inam Ghani called on Speaker at his chamber on behalf of IG Shoaib Dastgir who couldn’t turn up to the PA as he was in Islamabad.

The proceedings were resumed when the Speaker was assured that the IG would appear before the Speaker by Tuesday (today) to address the issue over which the House had taken notice.

This is noteworthy that Deputy Speaker Punjab Assembly Mir Dost Mohammed Mazari, through a privilege motion, drew the attention of the House towards the incident of maltreatment done to him by the officials of Punjab police. In the privilege motion, the Deputy Speaker submitted that on Jan 26, 2019 when he was on way to meet the chief minister, he was stopped at the entrance of GOR-1 and the person, who was the part of his staff, was disallowed entrance by the police personnel.

He said he had conveyed to the deployed personnel that the said person was the part of his staff and also presented him for complete scanning, security check but despite that the police officials deployed on duty flatly refused to allow him entrance.

The deputy speaker submitted that he was the custodian of this House but the behaviour of police was so insulting that he had to return.

He submitted that since day one ‘our government had been trying to make police an independent and public friendly institution but all these efforts were being wasted’ and stated that ‘no element of improvement’ was visible in it.

He submitted that if police were treating the custodian of the House in this way, what would be its attitude with the common citizens.

The members of the House on the occasion expressed solidarity with Deputy Speaker of PA over the incident and called for strict action against the responsible officials.

While commenting over the incident, the Speaker remarked that once similar incident occurred in the era of late Chief Minister Ghulam Hyder Wyne who had transferred an IG from the province. Khalil Tahir Sindhu, PML-N MPA from Faisalabad, also highlighted the incident of Batala Colony, Faisalabad in which he stated that police raided the house of poor Christians and disrespected women there, which was highly condemnable. He called for immediate action against the SHO concerned.

Sami Ullah Khan, PML-N MPA from Lahore, demanded summoning IG over the incident and stated that this practice wouldn’t stop until proper solution was found.

Sami Ullah Chaudhry, Minister for Food and Dr Akhter Malik, Minister for Energy, also condemned the incident in strong words. Law Minister Raja Basharat while speaking on the occasion said the incident was highly regretful and he rendered apology to the House over it. He remarked that the assembly would remain in sitting until this issue was resolved but till then, no business would be taken up.

He told the House that the IG had assured he would appear before PA on Tuesday and in his presence, all the complaints highlighted by the PA members regarding police would be discussed. The House was adjourned till Tuesday.