PML-N awaits court verdict to penalise Anjum Aqeel Khan

Discip­linary commit­tee chief declar­es MNA did not try to escape from police custod­y.

ISLAMABAD:

PML-N’s disciplinary committee is waiting for a court verdict to determine if MNA Anjum Aqeel Khan is guilty of escaping from police custody and suggest penalties for bringing disrepute to the party.

“Anjum Aqeel Khan had no role to play in the entire episode. He was forcibly taken from police custody,” the disciplinary committee’s chief Senator Raja Zafarul Haq told The Express Tribune, on Saturday. “The case is pending before the court and we will take the final decision in accordance with the verdict,” he added.

In September, an anti-terrorism court in Rawalpindi, had formally indicted Khan, who is on bail, for escaping from police custody. However, he had maintained in the bail application that he did not know the identity of the men who rescued him. Haq said they watched the footage of the incident in which Khan had tried to stop party workers from carrying out the escapade. Replying to a question, Haq said membership of party workers involved in the incident was suspended for three months. PML-N’s Secretary Information Senator Mushahidullah Khan said, “This is first time ever that a political party has punished its workers. “There is no such precedent.” Cabinet members found guilty of corruption were let off, but we have set an example by taking disciplinary action.

Khan was charged with defrauding the National Police Foundation of Rs6 billion in a land scam and arrested in July. However, he was freed shortly after the arrest by around 30 armed men who besieged Shalimar police. PML-N President Nawaz Sharif had referred Khan’s case to the party’s disciplinary committee to propose action against the legislator for escaping from custody and repeatedly ignoring directives to surrender to the police. Khan has been issued a show cause notice to explain his failure to immediately turn himself in to the police after the men helped him escape and his alleged involvement in the land scam.

The four-member committee comprising Haq, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Hanif Abbasi and Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry had compiled a report which has been forwarded to Sharif. In September 2009, the MNA was involved in an attack on a college teacher who had denied admission to a student recommended by him. Though the issue was resolved after the teacher apologised, the party did not take any action against Khan.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 16^th, 2011.