Fatal road accident : Former prime minister's driver sent to jail

Abid Nawaz booked for ‘unintentional murder’ after police hold him responsible for the collision

ISLAMABAD: A driver of former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf was sent to jail on Sunday after he had run over a motorcyclist on the Islamabad Expressway a day before.

Abid Nawaz, the driver, had been driving a government-owned land cruiser allotted to the former premier when he struck a police constable who was riding a motorbike near Zero Point on Saturday afternoon.

Zeeshan Abbasi, the police constable, was rushed to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) hospital in critical condition where he succumbed to his injuries.

Abbasi had only recently been recruited into the Punjab police and was posted at the Police Lines in Rawalpindi.

Following the accident, passersbys had surrounded Ashraf’s car and called the police.

The Aabpara police impounded the car and detained Nawaz, shifting them both to the police station.

Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) officials who reached the spot and examined the situation, declared that the driver of the sports utility vehicle (SUV) was responsible for the accident.

“In my view, the land cruiser driver Abid Nawaz was driving recklessly and negligently, causing the accident,” a traffic inspector observed in his report.

The report was then submitted for further action.

Since the motorbike rider had been struck from the rear, hence the car’s driver was responsible for the ensuing collision, police concluded.

Meanwhile, Abbasi’s family reached the hospital and submitted a written complaint against the driver of the land cruiser to the police.

The Aapara police subsequently registered a case against Nawaz for ‘unintentional murder through rash driving’ (manslaughter) and arrested him.

The driver was produced him before a judicial magistrate who sent the suspect to jail on judicial custody.

Meanwhile, the capital police said that they have arrested six suspects from various areas of the city and recovered a stolen motorbike, mobile phone and unlicensed weapons from them.

The Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) branch of the police said that they had arrested two suspected street criminals and recovered a stolen Honda 125 CC motorbike and an unlicensed 30-bore pistol from them.

The two suspected street criminals were identified as Nabeel Hussain and Muneer Ahmed.

Similarly, the Ramana police claimed to have arrested two suspects, identified as Rizwan and Shafqat and recovered stolen mobile phones and weapons from them.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 24^th, 2018.