PPP demands judicial probe into women's death

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leaders on Thursday demanded that the Lahore High Court form a judicial commission to probe the death of two women from Pakpattan who were allegedly buried in police custody.

Addressing a news conference, they lashed out at rising incidents of crimes against women in Punjab, deteriorating state of the police system and civic problems in the provincial capital.

Lahore PPP leader Ahmed Ghuman said the city ranked first in crimes against women.

He asked whether merely suspending police personnel was sufficient punishment for crimes committed in the Ghaziabad and Township police stations.

He said polygraph tests of the chief minister's aides should be conducted after every press conference.

Ghuman said it had been claimed that two women had suffered heart attacks simultaneously and they had been buried, calling the circumstances highly suspicious and concerning.

The PPP leader said the police system in the province had collapsed and that the federal interior minister should also focus on capacity building of Punjab police.

He advised Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz to concentrate on solving the problems in her own province instead of criticising others, adding that had a similar incident of stagnant rainwater and absent local governments occurred in Karachi, it would have received prominent media coverage.

PPP leader Sania Kamran said the Makkah defence agreement would prove to be a milestone for regional peace.

She praised the efforts of President Asif Ali Zardari in this regard and said he should hold talks with the Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz to improve the situation in Azad Kashmir.