Isb dance party: AC ordered raid on 'birthday party' over 'personal grudge', says SCBA

SCBA claims the event was a birthday party and the raid was 'orchestrated' on 'trumped up charges'

ISLAMABAD: Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) has sought action against an assistant commissioner (AC) of the Islamabad administration who had given the orders to raid a dance party being held at a hotel owned by the bar earlier this month.

In a strongly-worded statement issued on Saturday, the SCBA termed the raid by the assistant commissioner, Shoaib Ali, and police on the Grand Ambassador Hotel “a shameless act”.

The association accused the AC of malafide intentions behind the raid and has sought action against him and the police.



Fifty people were arrested from the party at the Grand Ambassador Hotel in G-5 in the wee hours of July 2. Officials said the partygoers were dancing and playing music on loudspeakers, and smoking tobacco and sheesha. Police rounded up 34 men and 16 women and booked them for ‘obscene acts and songs’, and for violating the amplifier and the tobacco control laws. However, all the suspects were released a few hours later on bail by the same magistrate on whose orders they were arrested.

In its statement, the SCBA claimed that the raid was “orchestrated” on “trumped up charges” because the AC, Ali, harboured a grudge against the hotel’s management.

The bar also demanded that the FIR against those attending the party be quashed.



SCBA Secretary Aftab Ahmed Bajwa told The Express Tribune that the event was not a dance party, but rather was a birthday party. He added that the SCBA would sue the AC for defamation.

On the other hand, Ali has denied the SCBA’s allegations saying the raid was conducted on the orders of the district magistrate.

It should be noted that the plot on which the hotel stands was allotted by the CDA to SCBA at a subsidised rate, after a one-time rule relaxation was granted by former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. It was meant to be a hostel for lawyers. However, after the completion of construction work with the federal and Punjab government funding, the building was leased out for Rs2.7 million per month and is now the Grand Ambassador Hotel.