Outrage over Achakzai home raid

PKMAP denounces ‘illegal’ move; Quetta DC says administration only ‘recovered govt lands’

QUETTA:

The Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PKMAP) staged a protest demonstration on Monday evening, denouncing what it claimed was an ‘illegal raid’ by police at the residence of Mehmood Khan Achakzai, a presidential candidate backed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

However, the charge was vehemently denied by Quetta Deputy Commissioner Saad Asad who said the raid was routine work by the district administration and revenue department to reclaim a piece of land.

PKMAP supporters gathered on various roads in the city and chanted full-throated slogans against the district administration, police and provincial government.

"All of this happened because of a speech by the party chairman for supremacy of parliament," Rauf Lala, one of the central leaders of the party, claimed.

The Quetta deputy commissioner alleged that the reclaimed land, an area of 2.5 kanals encircled by a boundary wall, was illegally occupied by the PKMAP chief.

The party will not make any compromise over the supremacy of parliament and Constitution, Mr Lala said. He said the party chairman had always stood by the rule of law and the supremacy of the country’s Constitution.

Former caretaker Balochistan information minister Jan Achakzai also defended the raid and said that it was nothing personal against the PKMAP chief. "It was part of a crackdown against land grabbers," Achakzai said.

PKMAP leaders, in their speeches, lashed out at the provincial government and accused it of punishing the party chief for what they called his democratic stance in the country.

"We will not abandon our democratic struggle,” Abdul Rahim Ziaratwal, another central leader of the party, said.

Ziaratwal said that all-out efforts would be made to ensure the protection of democratic and human rights in the country.

Condemning the incident, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam’s (JUI-F) Hafiz Hamdullah said it was a violation of an elderly politician's home, asserting that it exposed those pulling the strings. He said that the intrusion into the sanctity of a residence goes against democratic principles, condemning the harassment of a family through such raids.

Balochistan National Party (BNP) President Akhtar Mengal took to social media platform X to condemn the raid on Mahmood Khan Achakzai's residence, expressing his outrage and emphasising a zero-tolerance stance towards the ‘suppression of truth’.

Meanwhile, former PTI leader Shireen Mazari expressed hope that the parliament would not remain silent on the incident.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 5^th, 2024.