PPP urges CJP to take notice of rape on motorway

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Friday appealed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Gulzar Ahmed to take suo motu notice of an incident of rape on the motorway and remove the capital city police officer (CCPO) Lahore.

“We condemn the most horrendous incident on the motorway where a women was raped in front of her children and demand strictest punishment for the perpetrators,” said Secretary Information PPP Dr. Nafisa Shah, Deputy Secretary Information Palwasha Khan and PPP parliamentary leader in the Punjab Assembly Hassan Murtaza.

Dr Shah said the statement of CCPO Umar Shaikh about the incident washighly condemnable and it seemed he was a facilitator of criminals. She demanded that Shaikh should also be brought to book. “Imran Khan is acting like a viceroy and Usman Buzdar as his agent, while every four to six months the IGP Punjab is changed,” she said.

She said Imran Khan issued no statement for the victim and that is why he was called ‘Taliban Khan’. Dr Shah said the situation in the new Pakistan was such that half of the country was inundated [in flood water], while the other half was unsafe for women and children.

She said federal ministers, special assistants and advisers’ mission seemed to be saving the CCPO, who was blaming the victim instead of protecting her. That kind of facilitation was also done in the Sahiwal tragedy where the criminals and killers went scot free, Dr Shah said.

Palwasha Khan said there seemed to be a mutiny by the police in Punjab against Prime Minister Imran Khan's ‘selected government. “The situation in the country is worst in the last 72 years,” she said.

Ms Khan said the opposition would make a strategy in the APC to send the government packing. PPP parliamentary leader in the Punjab Assembly Hasan Murtaza said the PPP had submitted a call attention notice about the incident. He said similar incidents had taken place in Lahore, Gujranwala, Hafizabad and Multan. He said that it was most despicable that the CCPO Lahore was blaming the victim. “It is inhuman behavior of the CCPO who seems to be acting as the facilitator of rapists,” he said.

Meanwhile, former prime minister and PML-N Quaid Nawaz Sharif, while condemning the rape of a woman on the motorway, has expressed grief over the incident. In a statement on Friday, he said this catastrophic barbarism on a daughter of Pakistan has ripped his heart out. He said it is a question of Pakistan's integrity that the culprits be caught and given the worst possible punishment. He said the entire system is guilty until the moment the perpetrators of this heinous crime are caught and punished.

Meanwhile, PML-N spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb has demanded immediate removal of CCPO Lahore Umer Shaikh from service after the rape incident. She said as long as he continues to serve as CCPO Lahore, the respect of women in Pakistan is not safe. “It is our first demand that this CCPO should be removed from service immediately.” The PML-N leader said the CCPO should be sacked for blaming the victim for the incident just to hide his own incompetence.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad along with other PML-N women MNAs, lawyers and civil society members, Marriyum Aurangzeb said this is a condemnable and heart-breaking incident that a mother of three was gang-raped on the motorway.

Punjab Governor Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar met with PTI President from Azad Kashmir Barrister Sultan Mehmood and other party delegations. The governor said that the culprits involved in the Motorway rape case were no less than terrorists and they would be given exemplary punishment.

He said that the PTI government would complete its term despite the opposition’s APCs. The governor said that ever since the PTI government had come to power, the opposition was giving threats of protests but Prime Minister Imran Khan was not afraid of them and the government would not let the opposition succeed in their personal interests.

The Pakistan Muslim League (PML) President and former prime minister Ch Shujaat Hussain said that the molestation of a woman on the Motorway is highly regrettable and the accused should be punished in the public. He said that a large committee had been formed but committees will not solve the matter.

On the Gujjarpura incident, Shujaat Hussain said that the shameful act should not have occurred and called for speedy justice to the victim. Meanwhile, civil society activists and members held protests in Lahore and Karachi to condemn the motorway rape incident and to express solidarity with the victim woman.