VIP movement: ‘Punishment’ for being on time puts spotlight on IG

PIA staffer picked up, detained and threatened for not holding flight for Mushtaq Shah.

KARACHI:

The good news is that some airline staffers want to ensure flights leave on time. But as one of them was to discover, doing your job can sometimes land you a night at the Boat Basin police station.

That man is Arshad Ali Rind, a Pakistan International Airline (PIA) deputy shift station manager, who maintains that he was picked up, kept in a police station overnight and threatened because he refused to break the rules and delay a flight for the province’s top police official – the inspector general of police (IG).

Rind said that he was asked to delay a PK-509 flight leaving for Sukkur on Tuesday afternoon because Sindh IGP Mushtaq Shah was running late. He refused and the flight took off on its scheduled time at 12:30pm, with the IG Sindh arriving 15 minutes late.

“All the passengers were onboard but the IG and one of his friends were left,” he explained. “I couldn’t delay it 15 minutes.”

PIA confirmed the incident. “Our guy was asked to delay the flight but he told the policemen that it was not in his power to do anything,” PIA PRO Sultan Hasan told The Express Tribune. “So he ensured that the PIA flight took off at the scheduled time.”

Hours later, Boat Basin’s DSP Nayyarul Haq and SHO Naseer Tanoli raided Rind’s residence at Oyster View in Block II, Clifton near Bilawal House at around 1:30am Wednesday. Some 25 men in plainclothes in three police mobiles and two private vehicles first broke the door of his apartment. Rind said that the policemen misbehaved with his four children and wife. “I was sleeping then but they woke me and took me away,” he said. “They kept me in the lock-up and threatened to implicate me in terrorism cases.” The policemen took his cell phone and did not allow his family to visit him at the police station.

“When an IG level man works like this what can we expect with everyone else?” he asked. “He should be ashamed of himself.”

Rind said that the IGP had suspended his nephew, Mushtaq Sikandar Jamal Rind, who is a police ASI posted to Hyderabad. He said that he feared that he and his family were at risk.

Rind was released after his family and PIA officials approached Sindh Home Minister Manzoor Wassan who suspended DSP Haq and SHO Tanoli. Sources in the police department told The Express Tribune that seniors had scrambled to prevent the suspensions of both police officials, who despite Wassan’s orders are still at work. An inquiry team is being formed. Sources said that the police seniors were also trying to negotiate with Rind to sweep the matter under the carpet.

The IGP and other police officials were not available when approached to comment.

DSP Haq told The Express Tribune, however, that he refuted the allegations against the IGP, him and his police team and said that the police had a complaint against Rind which is why they had raided his house and brought him to the police station for questioning. He said that Rind had gone to the media to try and turn it around. “We were just taking action against a complaint,” he said. The DSP did not specify the nature of the complaint, or who made it and whether any entry was made in the roznamcha or daily police blotter. “It was of a private nature and I can’t share details,” he said.

Meanwhile, Rind is being seen as something of a hero at PIA. Abid Saleem Khan, a senior staff association president, said, “Our MD has really appreciated what Rind did and he’ll also be given an appreciation letter. The whole management and officers stand with Rind on this matter. The senior officials of the airline wasted no time in contacting senior police officials to sort out the matter. If Rind had followed their orders, he would have been suspended, because no one can delay flights on anyone’s whim unless the MD orders it.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 19^th, 2012.