Woman MPA attempts self-immolation near KP IGP office

PESHAWAR: In an unprecedented move, a woman member of the Khyber Pakhtun-khwa Assembly from the opposition benches attempted self-immolation in front of the office of inspector general of police (IGP) on Friday. She was stopped by the officers at the provincial police headquarters.

Nighat Orakzai, a lawmaker from the Pakistan People’s Party, arrived at the Central Police Office (CPO) while carrying petrol. She sprinkled the petrol on herself just outside the office of IGP Sanaullah Abbasi, saying she is committing suicide to protest against a top government functionary. “The issue is of my land that has been grabbed by the men supported by KP Governor Shah Farman. I came here to commit self-immolation and sprinkled petrol on my body but the officers stopped me. And the next time I am going to commit self-immolation outside the Governor’s House,” Nighat Orakzai told reporters.

She alleged the IGP and the police force were being influenced by the governor supporting land grabbers and criminals. “If anything bad happens to me, the governor and the IGP will be responsible for it,” she stated. The IGP was not at the office when the MPA arrived there.

Nighat Orakzai is one of the senior-most women lawmakers in the KP Assembly. She was first elected on reserved seats for women on the ticket of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid. No official was ready to give an official version over the issue. The spokesman for the Peshawar Police asked to get comments from the CPO. Senior officials and the spokesman for the CPO also did not reply when asked about their version.

Media persons were stopped at the main gate of the CPO and entry was refused to all the reporters who had gathered there to report the incident and talk to the officers about why the woman MPA had to go for this extreme step.

Someone in a WhatsApp group, however, said the said MPA had done such ‘stunts’ in the past as well to pressurise the police and other departments over certain issues and mostly remained successful in getting the desired results.

“This was the first-ever incident of its kind at the CPO but no one from the KP Police was ready to give his version,” a reporter, who was present outside the CPO and was not allowed to talk to any official, stated.

He said there was a sanctioned grade-19 position of the director general public relations at the CPO to speak to the media on behalf of the KP Police but no officer had been posted there and additional charge was given to a technical official. He said the many spokespersons for the capital city police did not comment on such incidents.