Protocol controversy: Imran’s sister tenders apology to Maryam Nawaz

Says she was told by the house owner that security officials were accompanying Nawaz

LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chief Imran Khan’s sister Dr Uzma Khan has tendered an apology to Maryam Nawaz for her statement on Friday that she and her children had been harassed and threatened by policemen apparently performing duties in her (Maryam Nawaz’s) security detail.

On Friday, Dr Khan had alleged that her vehicle was stopped and she and her children asked to step out by some policemen. She had said that the police team aimed guns at them and threatened to shoot them if they moved. She had said that later she was told that the policemen were accompanying Maryam Nawaz. In a statement issued on the social media on the same day, Nawaz had dismissed that anyone from her security detail was involved in the incident. She had said that she was in Islamabad when the incident was reported in the media.

In the letter issued on Friday, Dr Khan said that she had been told by a man who introduced himself as the owner of the house where the incident took place that the security officials involved in the matter were serving in Nawaz’s protocol. She said she later found out that it was Chaudhry Asim Gujjar’s house. She said that that she had been in ‘an extreme state of trauma’ when the incident took place. “I could never have imagined that the man, not known to me, [Mr Asim Gujjar] would blatantly lie about the identity of his guest,” the letter read.

Dr Khan also sent a letter to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif asking him to conduct a high-level inquiry to determine why the city police and administration were unaware of the VVIP movement in the area. Dr Khan said that in a conversation after the incident Operations DIG Haider Ashraf had told her that he was not aware of any VVIP movement at that time. “In his statement, the CCPO claimed that the protocol was with Azad Jammu and Kashmir president Sardar Yaqoub Khan who was visiting Mr Gujjar’s residence”, the letter read. It also mentioned that Gujjar had offered to compensate Dr Khan for the damages to her vehicle.

Meanwhile, speaking at a TV programme on Sunday, Gujjar denied that he had mentioned the name of Maryam Nawaz during his brief interaction with Dr Khan.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 4^th, 2016.