A police action shrouded in mystery

Leaders of various political parties have condemned the way Khawaja Izharul Hasan was arrested

KARACHI: Friday’s high drama sparked off a guessing game about who had ordered the arrest of Khawaja Izharul Hasan, the opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly. The chief minister and the provincial police chief denied they had sanctioned the action.

According to sources, SSP Rao Anwar was tipped off about the presence of suspected target killer Raees Mama at Izhar’s residence. When the police failed to find Mama at Izhar’s house, another order came from God knows where to arrest Izhar, who had returned home after a meeting with the chief minister a few minutes ago.



“Izhar was in the meeting with the chief minister when his house was raided. The chief minister suspended the SHO who had searched the house without informing the speaker Sindh Assembly. “This irked SSP Rao who not only challenged the chief minister’s directives, but went to arrest Izhar in a treason case,” said a senior official in the Chief Minister’s House.

Interestingly, police spared MQM leader Dr Faooq Sattar, who is also nominated in the treason case and was present at the time of Izhar’s arrest.

The official said the Sindh government would hold a high-level inquiry into the incident.  “Rao will have to face the music for overlooking the chief minister’s orders,” he said.

An official claimed that Izhar, recently appointed MQM-Pakistan’s Rabita Committee member, is reportedly still in contact with London-based MQM founder Altaf Hussain who the party has publicly disowned for his anti-Pakistan speech. “Izhar’s WhatsApp record shows he communicated with MQM’s London leaders,” a source said.

However, Izhar says he is a patriotic Pakistani and has no contact with the London Secretariat. “I would say we are being victimised like the 1990s,” he told The Express Tribune after his release. He demanded that the government take strict action against Rao.

Rao Anwar denied the action was dictated. “I took the action because he [Izhar] was wanted to police. The chief minister should have rewarded me,” he said.



Leaders of various political parties have condemned the way this action was taken.

“Rao Anwar has breached the privilege of the Sindh Assembly. Police or other agencies cannot take action against a lawmaker without informing the speaker,” Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani said, adding that some elements have set up a state within the state.

No one from Rangers or the security agencies was willing to speak on this issue. A senior official in Rangers, however, said it was purely an action by the Sindh police.

“Those linking security agencies with this incident want to weaken the ongoing operation,” he said adding that paramilitary force and police have rendered scarifies in Sindh, but some quarters wanted to defame these actions and make the targeted operation controversial.

Rao Anwar has been a controversial cop as former judges including Justice Nasir Aslam Zahid and former CJP Iftikhar Chaudhry remarked against him and asked successive governments to not appoint him. Roa, however, has successfully been appointed at key positions.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 17^th, 2016.