PML-N in a bind over runaway legislator fiasco

MNA claims he turned himself in, party claims credit for persuading him; police deny this and claim they arrested him.

ISLAMABAD:

Anjum Aqeel Khan, an MNA from Islamabad, has left the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) in a bind: his brazen escape from police custody on Friday after he was arrested on corruption charges has become a huge political liability for a party which has spent the last several months criticising the government’s alleged corruption.

Conflicting reports emerged on Saturday about how Aqeel ended up back in police custody, less than 24 hours after his audacious escape with the help of dozens of armed men, purportedly party workers.

Aqeel claimed to have turned himself in at the Kohsar Police Station in Islamabad, while the police deny this, claiming instead that they arrested him from the city’s G-9 sector. Sources inside the PML-N, meanwhile, claim that the party leadership had been trying to persuade Aqeel to turn himself in.

The party seems keen to be seen to have been cooperating with the police in the matter, though they claim they had no way of forcing Aqeel to turn himself in. Nevertheless, they back Aqeel’s account of the situation and deny that the police was able to capture him again.

Regardless of how he ended up back in police custody, Aqeel’s political career appears to be hanging by a thread as members of a disciplinary committee of his own party, the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), met on Saturday under the chairmanship of Raja Zafarul Haq to discuss his behaviour and his future with the party.

The four-member committee examined the issue and decided to take Aqeel’s version of the story into account before making any decisions on the matter. The committee is scheduled to meet again on Sunday (today). Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Hanif Abbasi and Tariq Fazal Chaudhry are the other members of the committee.

The committee was assigned to investigate the matter after the party’s leader, Nawaz Sharif, expressed his displeasure at Aqeel’s behaviour.

Aqeel, who is facing charges of being involved in the Rs6 billion National Police Foundation land scam, was freed from police custody within hours of his arrest by 30 armed men, who laid siege to Shalimar Police Station in Islamabad.

Earlier in the day, Magistrate Rai Liaquat Kharal declared him an “absconder” after a police report was lodged against Aqeel and the armed guards who had snatched him from the police.

On the other hand, the Station House Officer (SHO) of the Shalimar Police Station, Fayaz Tanoli, and twelve police officials were grant bail against Rs50,000 bonds after they had been arrested on charges of negligence. These officials were arrested on the instructions of Interior Minister Rehman Malik.

On Friday, the MNA was arrested in a fraud case registered against him in February 2010 after he visited a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) office instead of appearing before an investigation officer with regard to the Rs6 billion NPF land scam.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik, who had ordered charges being filed against police officials for negligence, has suggested that the PML-N leadership should suspend Aqeel’s party membership.



Published in The Express Tribune, July 17^th, 2011.