Inordinate delay: Police reply sought in plea over PFF office attack

This was the 24th hearing since the filing of the petition

LAHORE: Gulberg police were given till December 9 on Saturday to submit comments on a petition seeking registration of a case against Jamaat-i-Islami leader Hafiz Salman Butt and several others for attacking the Pakistan Football Federation head office and hurling death threats at PFF staff.

Saturday’s hearing was the 24th since the filing of the petition with the district and sessions court earlier this year. The failure of the Gulberg police to submit its comments has been responsible for adjournments without any progress in the matter.

Petitioner Lt Col (r) Ahmad Yar Lodhi, the PFF general secretary, had submitted that Butt and his accomplices had attacked the PFF building on April 11. He said the attackers had detained the staff for several hours and had hurled death threats at them before leaving.

The petitioner said they had later rushed to the nearby office of the provincial election commissioner, Syed Nayyar Husain, and threatened him with dire consequences in case he rejected the nomination papers of Ali Noor Niazi for the election for the Punjab Football Association president.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 29^th, 2015.