After being roughed up by punk and his guards, man’s public plea taken up by court

SHC orders government to come up with a uniform policy.

KARACHI:

Last year, Air Vice Marshal (retd) Syed Ataur Rahman was going home with his son Waqas when at Khayaban-e-Sehar a “big Land Rover/Land Ranger-type [of] vehicle” with an Abu Dhabi licence plate and an MNA’s plate approached from the opposite direction. It took up the middle of the narrow road and seemed like it would ram into their car.

Rahman swerved to the left to avoid being hit. As he passed, he told the driver to be careful rather than hit another car. The driver took offence to his words, stopped and began to reverse. Rahman too stopped his car. An argument took place in which the young driver, no more than 18 years old, said that he was running out of patience with the retired AVM. He alighted along with his two guards with Kalashnikov rifles and another older person. They started threatening the elderly gentleman and his son.

Rahman asked the boy to tell him his father`s name, to which he arrogantly replied, “Go and find it yourself.” One of the guards became violent and hit Rahman with the butt of his rifle and started to cock his gun as if he would shoot. More arguments took place. Then both the retired AVM and his son were attacked.

A police escort with up to eight policemen both in uniform and plainclothes arrived and without ascertaining the facts attacked the father and son. Passers-by intervened and prevented the situation from getting worse. The young driver also realised that the matter had taken an ugly turn and asked his men to get into their cars. They sped away.

Rahman wrote about this incident in a letter to the editor that appeared in daily Dawn on June 9, 2010. The chief justice of the Sindh High Court took notice and converted it into a constitutional petition. After the court took up the matter, Rahman appeared in person and requested the court to order the traffic police to check these vehicles just as they check other vehicles with ordinary licence plates issued by the Excise and Taxation department.

On Tuesday, the bench directed the federal ministries of interior and foreign affairs, the Sindh government and its excise and taxation department to prepare a uniform policy or regulations to check vehicles with foreign or diplomatic number plates.

Besides issuing these directives, the bench also ordered the respondents to engage in a meaningful discussion, come up with policy guidelines and recommend the same thing to the provincial authorities so that vehicles with unauthorised registration number plates are checked. The Sindh government and ministry of foreign affairs shall place before the court a positive outcome of these orders, the bench said, adjourning the petition to a date to be fixed later by the office of the court.

The retired air vice marshal had  a few questions:

1. How can there be an Abu Dhabi-registered car running around in Karachi with an MNA plate?

2. Is the boy allowed to drive this vehicle?

3. Is the boy entitled to the privileges of an MNA?

4. How did the police escort (typical Hilux escort vehicle) reach the place?

5. Are the police allowed to escort the young boy?

6. Why should they join in the altercation?

7. When will these rulers learn to curb their arrogance and haughtiness and understand that they have been elected to serve the people rather than harass and beat them up?

source: letter to the editor

Published in The Express Tribune, May 11^th, 2011.