Pakpattan incident was avoidable: report

ISLAMABAD: Pakpattan incident could have been averted if District Police Officer (DPO) Rizwan Gondal had not been negligent in performing his duties, a police inquiry report stated.

“Had he taken proper notice of the first incident and identified the actual nature of problem, the misunderstanding between the complainant and the district police could have been averted. However, no step was taken till August 23 after a lapse of 18 days,” says the report submitted by Additional Inspector-General Police Abubakar Khudabakhsh before the Supreme Court.

It stated that if an inquiry had been ordered after the August 5 incident, the matter would have unraveled before the DPO and he could have taken proper action against individual who was at fault.

The report stated: “Departmental reprimand is warranted against him.”



DPO Rizwan Gondal had admitted that he had not been directed by either the IG Punjab, RPO or anyone else from the police command to visit “Khawar Manika’s Dera”.

He failed to communicate what actually happened on August 5 and misrepresented the actual problem. This also created a negative impression about the force and senior police officials and as a result, they were vilified “which cannot be condoned”, the inquiry report stated.

It also stated that if Maneka had abused any police official or threatened on phone afterwards and the DPO came to know about it, legal action was warranted.

“No step was taken. However (inquiry on) this point remained inconclusive and is a point of further inquiry. If this point is proved beyond a reasonable doubt at any later stage, criminal action should be initiated against Khawar Maneka.”

It is also stated that his supplementary statement on August 29 further exacerbates the matter as he mentioned his visit to the Chief Minister Office on the night of August 24 which “is clearly outside the ambit of his inquiry”.



Interestingly, Gondal’s August 27 statement made no mention of any order from any authority of directing him to go to Maneka’s ‘Dera’.

However, he submitted a supplementary statement on August 29 in which he elaborated in detail how he had been called to the CM office on August 24. But this clearly did not fall into the ambit of the present inquiry and has nothing to do with the issue at hand.

However, the report stated, there was no evidence on record to substantiate the allegation of any mala fide intention on the part of police or targeting Khawar Farid Maneka’s family deliberately on both occasions.

Police officials on patrol were unaware about the expected arrival of the ‘would-be First Lady’.

When they (police) tried to stop a young woman and a boy strolling together, they tried to stop them to check their identities and ask them about their whereabouts and why they were walking there at that time of the night.

These officials could have avoided this untoward occurrence if they had just asked the persons in the Vigo pick-up these simple questions or focusing on Khawar’s son, Ibrahim Maneka, who politely introduced himself to the police officials on the query, the unfortunate incident could have been avoided as well.

Probably, Ibrahim was agitated thinking that they were being stopped by the same police force that he had been informed about earlier that they did not need any security.

Earlier, police narrated two incidents, which occurred on August 5 and August 23.

On the night of August 5, Ibrahim Khawar reported that he and his sister, Mubashera, were walking from his village Pir Ghani to Pakpattan.

The path covered a distance of 25km which they intended to cover on foot to offer their respect for Hazrat Ganj Shakkar whose shrine is located in Pakpattan. They started their journey at around 7pm and they were stopped by police when they were just five kilometres away from their destination at around 1:30am. Three policemen alighted from their vehicle and misbehaved with them without any cogent reason and even pushed and shoved them.

Later, Ibrahim called his father Khawar, who arrived at the spot and admonished police officials for misbehaving with his son and daughter. Later, police officials apologized on the spot.

The second incident happened on August 23, when he (Khawar Maneka) was going to the shrine and was forcibly stopped about  five kilometres away from Pakpattan city by an Elite Police vehicle and those officials misbehaved with him. Maneka called DPO Gondal, who asked police officials to allow them to go.

Maneka suspected that both incidents were part of a ploy against him and his family.

The report stated that Maneka thought that his relatives were behind these incidents. He was not on talking terms with his brothers.

The report stated that statements of 17 individuals had so far been recorded in the police inquiry.