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IG Sindh Mushtaq Mahar, senior Sindh police officers seek leave after being 'humiliated' in Capt Safdar arrest
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KARACHI: IG Sindh Mushtaq Mahar, senior Sindh Police officers in the province have applied for leave, adding that the police high command had been "humiliated and manhandled" over the registration of FIR in Captain Safdar's arrest.
"It is respectfully submitted that in the recent episode of registration of FIR against Capt(R) Safdar in which Police high command has not only been ridiculed and mishandled, but all ranks of Sindh Police have been demoralized and shocked," read the Additional IG Sindh Imran Yaqoob Minhas's letter.
The officials also include Additional Inspector General (AIG) Karachi, AIG (special branch) and several Deputy Inspector Generals (DIG) of police.
The AIG Sindh said that in order to "come out of this shock and settle down" he was applying for 60 days earned leave.
Safdar had been arrested Monday morning from the hotel after he was booked for violating the sanctity of the Mazar-e-Quaid. He was presented before a judicial magistrate in the afternoon where he was granted bail.
The PML-N leader was taken into custody after he was booked in a case pertaining to the violation of the sanctity of the Quaid-e-Azam's Mazar where a day earlier he had chanted the slogan "vote ko izzat do (honour the vote)" and urged people to join him.
Party workers and supporters had responded to Safdar's call and chanted along for an extended period of time as Maryam Nawaz and party spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb looked on.
The move was met by a fierce reaction by government representatives who not only demanded an apology, but approached the police, asking them to initiate legal action against all those who participated in the act.
Sindh chief minister announces ministerial probe into Safdar's arrest from Karachi hotel, 'false' FIR
After a turn of events that put the provincial government under much public scrutiny, Chief Minister Sindh Murad Ali Shah on Tuesday announced that a ministerial committee will be formed to probe the circumstances surrounding the arrest of retired Capt Safdar from a hotel in Karachi a day earlier.
"We are forming a ministerial committee to probe the incident. The names have not been finalised but there will be three to five ministers [in the committee]," said Shah, while addressing a media conference at the Chief Minister House.
CM Shah, while speaking of the events in the lead up to the arrest, said there was "a minister" who was giving the police "ultimatums". "I will see how a case is not registered," said the chief minister quoting the minister, but declining to name him.
He said while it is not a crime to be present within a police station, "it is a crime to register a false case".
He accused this "minister" of being part of the "lies" that surround the "false case" against Capt Safdar. He said that the inclusion of 506 (b) (punishment for criminal intimidation if threat be to cause death or grievous hurt) was done purposely because when such a case is brought to the police, it is duty bound to register such a case.
CM Shah said that on two occasions prior to that, PTI ministers went to the police attempting to register a case after which even the Mazar's board approached police with the PTI ministers accompanying them in a third instance. They were told by police a summary trial like the one sought falls under the jurisdiction of the magistrate and it is not up to the police to register a case.
The chief minister said that the man named Waqas — who is the complainant in the case — told police that he was threatened. CM Shah said that to the contrary, it is "clear" that this was planned.
"If he was a private person, we would stop to think. But they were standing right next to him [at the police station]," said CM Shah, adding that they were happily posing for photographs while they were at it.
"They attempted to pressurise the police. The police did not fall under pressure [...] from about six in the evening, they kept at this till one in the night."
"The jalsa venue continued to swell with people and all the while they were attempting to do this," he said, criticising that elected representatives resorted to "intimidating police".
They pushed to do something illegal, said CM Sindh. "Their state of panic [over the jalsa's success] was evident."
The chief minister stressed that the police will never do anything wrong and the PPP will never ask it to.
