The demolition orders were dismissed by the Pakistan Railways general manager, who said that the building will now be converted into a historical landmark, similar to the Chauburji Chowk in Lahore.

Earlier, accusing the government of destroying the city’s built heritage, the traders and some other citizens said the demolition was not justified.

The protest was led by Shahid Babar Pehlwan, Mobile Association Chairman Malik Saleem and Mir Imtiaz, who said they owned shops in front of the railway station.

They demanded that the Archeology Department should conserve the historical site and convert it into a museum or a library.

They said a 132-year-old tea house at the building had already been demolished.

Station Master Muhammad Ramazan told The Express Tribune that the building was being demolished on the orders of the Railways general manager and divisional superintendent to expand a section of the GT Road.

He said since some section of the building had already been demolished on Tuesday, the remained will now be conserved.

Instead on expanding the road in front of it, he said, the road will pass along it. He said the site will be conserved along the lines of how Lahore’s Chauburji Chowk had been conserved.

He said a part of the bridge built in 1973 to connect Gondlawala Chowk to Sialkot Road had already been demolished to make way for a road expansion project. He said the road was being expanded by 16-foot. The building, he said, had not been much in use and as mostly cargo bogies were parked here.

After the 1857 mutiny the British had built several fortress-like railway stations across the country.

The Gujranwala station was built in 1881 to connect Lahore with Peshawar.

The protestors demanded a pedestrian tunnel in front of Sialkoti Gate also be preserved.

The walk-way was built at a cost of Rs30 million in 2011 to allow women shoppers an easy access to Galan Kasaban market from the GT Road. They regretted that it had become part den of drug addicts and part garbage dump.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 21^st, 2013.

Some of the students were issued slips that turned out to be bogus. The protesters burned some motorcycles belonging to the college staff.

Later the Education Department sealed the college and the police arrested its chairman.  A fraud case has been registered against him.

Students of Intermediate in Computer Science (ICS) part-I at the Victoria College of Commerce on Kachha Aimenabad Road had gathered outside the office of the registrar in the morning and demanded roll number slips to sit their statistics examinations at 1:30 pm.

They were told to submit their fees for the second year first. After roll number slips were issued to two students, who paid the fees, turned out to be bogus.

The students then attacked the principal’s office and damaged college property.

Muhammad Adeel and Asif Asghar, the principal and the vice principal, respectively managed to escape, but the students caught hold of the chairman, Muhammad Yousaf. He was beaten up and handed over to Sabzi Mandi police, where a fraud case has been registered against him.

Several students, talking to The Express Tribune, said they had been told that the roll number slips will be mailed to their homes on Tuesday, but nobody received the slips.

Mariam Zafar, one of the students who paid the Rs40,000 fee for the second year, said the invigilators at the exam centre did not let her in telling her the roll number slip (Number 17474) was bogus.

She said, earlier, the students were told that the slips had been stolen from the office. She said, later, the administration had told the students that admissions of boy students had been sent through the Army Public School, Gujranwala, and those of the girl students through Jinnah Science College.

When approached, the administration of both the institutions denied having been contacted for the purpose.

Army Public School administration clarified that the school was affiliated with the federal board and could not correspond with any of the provincial boards.

District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Rasheed Qamar was requested to intervene and has summoned the students and the college principal to the court on Thursday (today).

Some of the students said they planned to sit-in in front of the board office on Thursday (today) to demand roll number slips.

An official of the Gujrawalan board said that the college was not recognised with the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education. He said the board could not issue new roll number slips until the chief minister directed the chairman to do so.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 31^st, 2012.

Judicial magistrate Irfan Nasim Tarar summoned both parties after a medical examination report confirming torture on Tanveer Ahmed, a Shakargarh resident, was submitted in his court on Friday.

The report said three fingers of the suspect’s right hand had fractures and his body had been burned with hot iron rods. Dr Sohail Butt, who carried out the examination at Civil Hospital said there were severe burn wounds on the suspect’s right arm.

In his complaint, Ahmed’s counsel had submitted on Wednesday that he was tortured by ASI Azam Pehlvan throughout the two weeks he had been remanded to the police. He said his client had been wrongly implicated in a two-year-old car lifting case. He said Ahmed was not even nominated in the FIR in which the police had arrested him.

ASI Pehlam rejected the suggestion that he had tortured Ahmed during interrogation.  He said he had made up the torture allegation to avoid prosecution.

Talking to The Tribune, Satellite Town station house officer Tahir Majid Khan said Ahmed had been sent to the central jail at the end of his remand a week ago. “If he had been tortured by Satellite Town police he should have complained about it then and not from the central jail,” he said.  The SHO said the suspect had likely inflicted the injuries upon himself to avoid prosecution. “He (Ahmed) is a hardened criminal wanted for several robberies in Shakaragarh. We suspect that he is involved in car lifting in Gujranwala as well,” he said.

Central Jail Superintendent Muhammad Zia corroborated police’s statement and said that every suspect brought to the jail from the police station is examined by a medical board before he is sent to a barracks. “If he had been tortured at the police station, our medical board must have noticed that out during their examination,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2012.

Gulshan Town resident Mubarak Ali was arrested by police called to the scene by some neighbours who had gathered outside the house after hearing his wife’s screams for help.

A case was registered against Ali at Civil Lines police station after a medical examination at Gujranwala district headquarters (DHQ) hospital confirmed inhumane torture.

“Her face and most of her body has been burnt by acid,” Dr Zafar Iqbal, who conducted the medical exam, told The Express Tribune. He said the woman’s body bore burn injuries from branding with heated iron.

Rubina Bibi accused Ali, his cousin Surayya and two nephews Irfan and Imran of cutting her hair and eyebrows, besides torturing her. She said she had left Ali three weeks ago and was living at her parents’ house. On Wednesday, she said, Ali came over and persuaded her to return to his house. “He had already planned the assault with his cousin and nephews. When we entered home they were already there,” she said.

Talking to The Tribune at Civil Lines police station, Ali confessed to the crime. “I wanted to teach her a lesson,” he said. He accused the woman of having extramarital affairs.

“I had been told by my relatives that she was seeing other men during my stay in Saudi Arabia,” he said. Ali, a labourer in Saudi Arabia, said he had recently returned to Pakistan with savings of around a million rupees. He also accused his wife of stealing his savings.

Civil Lines police have registered a case under Sections 34, 377 and 354-A of the Pakistan Penal Code. Section 354-A deals with crime involving use of criminal force against woman and is punishable by death or imprisonment for life.

In another incident of violence, a woman was made to stand on a hot pan (tava) because she had asked her husband to find a better job. Nowshera Road resident Hafeezan Bibi claimed in a complaint she lodged with Aimanabad police that her husband Abdul Aziz and his brothers had forced her to stand on a heated pan, causing severe burns to her soles. She said had it not been for some neighbours who called police to the scene she would have been locked at the house without any medical treatment.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th, 2011.

Police said Hafiz Zaman 27, son of Haji Yousaf, residents of People’s Colony on Approach Road, was kidnapped on May 26 by one Mahmood from his home.

Police said that Zaman had been married recently.

They said his brother-in-law, Mudassir, had a dispute with Mahmood’s brother, Sabir alias Sabi, who was imprisoned in the Central Jail, Sheikhupura, over charges of kidnapping for ransom.   They said Muddassir had refused to pay the disputed amount.

To avenge Mudassar, police said, Sabir had plotted with his brother, Mahmood, to kidnap Zaman to recover the money.

Zaman told the police that some men had broken into his house and locked his wife in a room.

He said they beat him up and took him to Sabir’s farm where they detained him in a room with animals.

“They told me they had picked me up because Muddassir had refused to pay them the money he owed them.” He said that he was starved for days and forced to plead his family to pay the ransom.

“In the end they threatened to kill my father unless they were paid,” he said.

The family received a call from the kidnappers a week later with a Rs10 million demand as ransom money.

Muddassir said that the kidnappers gave them a week’s time to arrange the money. “It was impossible to arrange Rs10 million in a week, so we reported the matter to the police.”

The police arrested Mahmood’s father, Abbas Virk.

Police said that soon after Virk was arrested, the family received a call from the kidnappers offering Zaman’s release in exchange of Virk.

DSP Shahid Hafiz said that information obtained from Virk led the investigation teams to Sabir’s farm in Sheikhupura from where they recovered Zaman.

He said that Zaman looked underfed. He said there was no one at the farm at the time the police teams raided the place.

Zaman was taken to his house, where the family welcomed him and the police with flower petals.

Zaman’s father, Muhammad Yousaf, thanked the RPO and the DSP.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 22^nd, 2011.

GUJRANWALA: Eight eunuchs were arrested and sent to jail for two weeks on Monday in Gujranwala under the Maintenance of Public Order ordinance.

They belonged to Mian Zahoor Guru Group and Ijaz Group.

They were arrested by Cantt police on Sunday after they brawled at a wedding ceremony. Ijaz Group had performed at the ceremony and made Rs6,000. Zahoor Guru Group had then allegedly attacked them claiming the Cantt police precinct belonged to them and that no other group was allowed to operate there.

SHO Amir Abbas said the police had tried to settle the dispute but the eunuchs attacked one another at the police station as well. He said when they were unable to calm them down they had to put them in separate lock ups.

Police learnt that the two groups had been clashing over demarcation of territories for over a month.

Earlier, a case was registered against these groups in the first week of January at Cantt police station when Zahoor Guru Group had allegedly broken into Ijaz group’s office and roughed up its members. SHO Abbas said they had detained them for several hours. “They were released with a warning to discipline themselves,” he said.

Those arrested, besides the group leaders, included:

Tahir alias Sana, Tariq alias Tara Ji and Mohsin alias Pooja of Zahoor Guru group and Shahbaz alias Sana, Hamid alias Midda and Javaied alias Jadda of Ijaz group. They were produced before Magistrate Ghulam Abbas on Monday morning who sent them to Central Jail for two weeks. Zahoor Guru Group claimed that they had been working in the area for over 18 years and Ijaz Group had recently settled in.

They accused Ijaz Group of trying to steal their business. Group leader Zahoor Guru said that their business had fallen ever since Ijaz Group’s ‘invasion’. “This is my area. Only my pupils can operate here,” he said. Guru alleged that Ijaz was not even a eunuch. “He’s married. He has hired these eunuchs as a side business. For us, this is our life,” he said.

Ijaz denied the allegation. He said he was as much a eunuch as Zahoor Guru. He challenged the suggestion that the eunuchs could be confined to specific territories. “Everyone should be allowed to operate everywhere. They can’t bar us from any place. We will go wherever we are invited,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune February 8^th, 2011.

NAUSHERA VIRKAN: A land-dispute, first brought before a sessions’ court in Naushera Virkan in 1965, was decided by the Lahore High Court on Wednesday.

On directives of Justice Farrukh Khan, SSP (Investigation) Shaukat Abbass on Thursday handed over the possession of 19 acres of farmland in Marri Khurd village to Master Inayat, the son of Imam Din, who first filed the case. Din had died in 2008 at the age of 98 while the case was still pending in the Lahore High Court.

The original petition involved 65 acres of land and was moved by Fakhar and Taj Ahmed against Imam Din and Bashir Ahmed under their right to preempt a sale. The latter had bought the 65-acre land next to Fakhar and Taj Ahmed’s land from Saeed Khan.

The case went on for 38 years. In 2003, the Supreme Court disposed of the petition distributing the land into three portions (giving a third each to Imam Din and Bashir Ahmed and dividing the remaining third between Fakhar and Taj Din). While Bashir Ahmed, Fakhar and Taj Ahmed got their share, Imam Din had to contest another case to get the land recovered from his tenant, Abdul Hameed.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Master Inayat, Imam Din’s son who was now following the case, said that Hameed had illegally gotten possession of the land in 2003 after the Supreme Court divided it among the three parties.

He said Hameed made his father submit a document with his thumb impression in the court stating that he himself was in possession of the land when actually it was Hameed who possessed it.

He said his father moved High Court after he was told by the police and the Revenue Department that they could not offer any help in the matter. “My father was illiterate. Hameed deceived him,” he said.

Inayat said that his son and grandson (Haji Ahmed and Amir Hamza) had also been pursuing the case along with him since 2003. “The hearings in the case had become a routine for us,” he said, “I grew up seeing my father leaving every now and then for the city to attend the hearings and had been doing the same since six years.”

He said he was grateful that the case got decided in his lifetime and that his children would not have to suffer because of it.

Hameed went missing after he was dispossessed of the land. The SSP (Investigation) said he must have fled to some other village fearing mistreatment in the village now that he had no land there.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 28^th, 2011.

GUJRANWALA: A handicapped worker was crushed to death in a stone grinding machine on Wednesday, allegedly by three contractors. They were arrested by the police.

Other workers at the factory, located near Attawa at the GT Road, said that the owners suspected deceased Imran, a resident of Amanabad Mor, of planning with some workers to establish a labour union. They said 10 workers were fired by the factory owners on Wednesday morning, before Imran’s murder.

The police reached the scene after a crowd gathered in front of the factory and started protesting against the owners. Superintendent of Police (Investigation) Mubashir Makin told The Express Tribune that had the police not reached the scene in time and stopped the crowd from taking the law into their own hands, they could have killed the accused – Rana Sohail, Rana Azeem and Rana Naeem. He said the police had registered an FIR against them under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code. Liaqat, an uncle of the deceased, was the complainant. Aslam, a worker, said that Imran was deaf and dumb. He said he was a simple man and could never get involved in political activities. He said the owners must have planned the murder in advance, “He was asked to work on the grinding machine though he never worked on it,” he said. He added that they asked him to enter the machine and clean it. “They switched on the machine once he was inside. His body was chopped into pieces,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20^th,  2011.

GUJRANWALA: Two pharmacists of the Social Security Hospital in Gujranwala were charged criminal neglect leading to a woman’s death on Wednesday. Both have gone in hiding.

Iqbal Begum, a resident of Farid Town, was brought to the hospital with low blood pressure. She was discharged with a prescription. The family said that when they gave her the prescribed tablets her condition worsened. They said they brought her back to the hospital where she died. They alleged that Iqbal Begum died due to the negligence of pharmacists and doctors. The family accused the pharmacists of giving the wrong medicine to the woman. The prescription, they said, mentioned Calcin tablets but the pharmacists instead gave her Calan, which lowers blood pressure.

The hospital administration, however, said that there was no evidence of negligence. It formed a three-member inquiry committee to probe the matter.

Following her death, the family staged a protest at the hospital and broke glass windows by pelting them with stones. The protesters dispersed after the Model Town deputy superintendent of police, Qayum Gondal, reached the scene and assured them of action against the guilty. He registered a case against the pharmacists, Akmal and Yaseen, under Section 319 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The medical superintendent of the hospital formed an inquiry committee to probe the allegations. The committee consisted of senior doctors – Dr Ammar Kaleem, Dr Javed Mughal and Dr Tahir Bhalar. MS Ijaz Kazmi directed the committee to file a report within 48 hours.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Dr Kazmi said that there was no evidence of negligence on behalf of the hospital staff. He said Iqbal Begum was a hepatitis patient and initial medical examination suggested that her ailment was not curable as her liver had shrunk in size. The family contended that she was not in a critical condition when they brought her to the hospital. They said that she was suffering from a liver disease and on Wednesday her blood pressure suddenly fell, after which they brought her to the hospital. Kashif, Iqbal Begum’s son, said that the doctors and pharmacists were responsible for his mother’s death. “They gave her wrong tablets and the doctor did not bother to check the medicine,” he said. He alleged that the hospital administration was threatening them to not pursue the matter.

Deputy medical superintendent Abdul Rahman Alvi, however, rejected that the administration was threatening the family. He said that they had initiated an inquiry and would soon ascertain the facts of the matter.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th, 2010.

GUJRANWALA: Two men are learnt to have taken the body of a 12-year-old boy named Ashfaq Shamshad to the District Headquarter Hospital, claiming that the boy had committed suicide.

They said that the boy used to work at their house.

They left the hospital as soon as they handed over the boy’s body to the hospital staff.

Doctors later called in the police when they became suspicious about the child’s death. Ashfaq had a constricted windpipe, rope burns and abrasions on his neck and wrists. His body was sent to the mortuary after an autopsy.

Ashfaq is said to have been working at the residence of a homeopathic doctor named Zahid Mehmood in the New Muslim Colony for the past two years. Ashfaq was the only helper for a household with two boys and two girls. His body was brought to the hospital by  Zahid’s sons.

Officials of the Satellite Town police station raided Dr Zahid’s house to discover that the family had already packed and left. SHO Iqbal Aujla stated that the boy could not have managed to tie his own hands before hanging himself. He said that he suspected someone in the family might have been involved in the boy’s death. Police officials have registered a murder FIR against Zahid and are conducting raids in search of the absconding family members.

Zahid’s neighbour Sarfaraz Mughal said that the man and his family “often tortured Ashfaq”, adding that the boy was often scolded.

“Sometimes we could hear Ashfaq crying and screaming for help. We could tell that he was being beaten up.”

Another neighbour Asghar Ali said: “We all knew that Ashfaq was not treated well. Whenever the family used to leave the house to go somewhere, they would tie Ashfaq on the roof under the sun because they did not trust him inside their house alone.”

Ashfaq is survived by six siblings.

His uncle Rizwan said that he was too young to even think about taking his own life.

Rizwan said that this was a “clear case of murder”.

The family lives in Kamoke in a small village called Chak Hinda.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 4^th, 2010.