KARACHI: A case has been filed against a Sindh Assembly legislator of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Malik Shahzad Awan, for threatening an on-duty police officer in Karachi's Ittehad Town.
The matter came to light through a video circulated on social media in which the PTI MPA can be seen and heard threatening a police officer against extorting businessmen and traders in Saeedabad Sector 9.
"I will not spare you here [in public] or in your homes ... I will have you publically stripped and hung upside down ... Go and tell your IG, DIG and SSP," said Awan as he faced the police officer among a crowd of people.
It remained unclear whether there actually had been any incident of extortion by the police in the locality.
PTI leader sparks social media outrage after videos show him humiliating police
Consequently, on Thursday, a case against the PTI MPA was filed at the Ittehad Town police station under sections 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation); 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace); 147 (punishment for rioting); 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon); and 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
This is not the first instance of a PTI leader intimidating police officers in Sindh.
In 2018, Umerkot-based PTI leader Nawab Zaid Talpur and his son, Hassan Talpur, were handed six months in jail for forcibly entering the Kunri police station and harassing the station house officer (SHO).
The incident took place in May 2017 and a video surfaced showing Zaid sitting in the chair of SHO Tassawur Jatt, telling the officer to sit on the ground and admonishing him for taking action against a PTI supporter.
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