Change of hands: Rangers hand over Pasban leader to police

SSGC directors also handed over to NAB after completion of 90-day custody

KARACHI: Police have registered a case against the Pasban-e-Pakistan general secretary, Usman Moazzam on charges of facilitating terrorism and providing shelter to terrorists. The suspect was handed over to the police by Rangers on Friday after the completion of his 90-day preventive detention in the latter’s custody. Meanwhile, the Rangers also handed over officials of the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), who were in their custody for 90 days, to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Moazzam was handed over to the police on Friday and an FIR, No 179/15, under the clauses of the Anti-Terrorism Act for facilitating terrorists, was registered against him at the Samanabad police station. The case was registered on behalf of the Rangers.

A police officer of Samanabad police station told The Express Tribune that the complainant quoted the accused as saying that he used to provide support and shelter to terrorists.  The accused was handed over to Gulberg police station for further investigation, instead of Samanabad police station. Earlier, MQM’s leader Amir Khan and PPP leader Dr Asim Hussain were also handed over to Gulberg police station investigation wing instead of the relevant police station.

Usman Moazzam, the general secretary of Pasban-e-Pakistan, was detained along with his young son, Muhammad, during a raid allegedly conducted by the paramilitary force at his residence on July 19. The Rangers had initially denied any such arrests. After the passage of nearly 35 days, however, the Rangers had produced him before an anti-terrorism court and taken him into custody for 90 days.

The raid was conducted at Moazzam’s residence in Samanabad. The family had claimed that around two dozen Rangers personnel had barged into the house.

Moazzam was Pasban’s candidate in the by-elections in the NA-246 constituency. His eldest son, Saad Usman, has also been missing since June 11. A complaint regarding his disappearance was also registered at the Samanabad police station.

The party and the family seem to be worried about Moazzam’s son who, according to them, was also picked by the Rangers during the raid. “His son is still missing,” said Pasban president Altaf Shakoor while speaking to The Express Tribune. “We might have been punished for raising a voice against the establishment of military courts.”

SSGC officials

Meanwhile, the NAB produced on Friday the deputy managing director and a former managing director of SSGC before a judicial magistrate for transit remand on corruption charges. After the end of their 90-day preventive detention, the Rangers handed over the deputy managing director of the gas utility, Shoaib Warsi, and the former MD, Zuhair Siddiqui, to NAB for investigations.

The NAB investigators produced the suspects before a judicial magistrate of District South, Javed Iqbal Malik, who was performing special duty, and sought their transit remand on the grounds that the accountability courts were closed as the provincial government had declared a holiday on the Urs of Sufi poet Hazrat Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai. The magistrate, however, did not entertain the request and observed that he had no jurisdiction to grant such a remand in cases pertaining to the NAB.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 28^th, 2015.