Highhandedness: Case against 4 for pressuring complainant

Case against family of a child killed by a bullet shot in jubilation at a wedding ceremony to withdraw their complaint

FAISALABAD:

Gulberg police have registered a case against four men including a PML-N MPA for harassing and pressuring the family of a child killed by a bullet shot in jubilation at a wedding ceremony to withdraw their complaint in the incident.

The suspects have been identified by the police as MPA Khawaja Islam, Inspector Malik Zafar Iqbal, Mian Waheed and Ghulam Sarwar.

The case was registered after Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary took a suo motto notice of the incident and summoned both parties.

The CJP had also ordered the removal of Faisalabad City Police Officer from his post and directed the Gulberg police to probe the matter.

Muhammad Shahid, a resident of Ghulam Muhammadabad, told the court the suspects were pressuring his family to withdraw the complaint about the death of his 12-year-old son.

He said his son had died after a stray bullet hit him while he was standing by his side at the wedding ceremony. He said he had filed a complaint with the Gulberg police for registration of a case under Sections 302 (murder), 148 (armed) and 149 (everyone in an unlawful group guilty of offence) of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). Following the registration of an FIR, he said, MPA Khwaja Islam and Inspector Malik Zafar Iqbal had started pressuring him to settle the matter out of court. Police said they had arrested inspector Malik Zafar Iqbal and Ghulam Sarwar. They said MPA Khawaja Islam and Mian Waheed were not arrested as they had been granted a bail by the court.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th, 2011.