Clash of the titans: Over Rs25 toll tax, minister lands in trouble
Ex-serviceman files complaint, Tauqeer Fatima Bhutto booked for intimidating workers.
HYDERABAD:
Never mess with an army man they say (in Pakistan). Perhaps, Tauqeer Fatima Bhutto, the women rights minister, had never heard the saying or being a minister herself never gave a second thought to other “influential” forces in the country.
However, she learned this the hard way when she refused to pay the toll tax in Jamshoro 17 days ago. The in-charge at Jamshoro toll plaza, Colonel (retd) Muhammad Naseer, a project manager of the National Highway Authority (NHA), registered a case against the women rights minister for allegedly intimidating the workers with death threats. The sections in the FIR, registered at Jamshoro police station on court order, carry imprisonment of up to 10 years if convicted.
The minister and her driver allegedly argued with the Jamshoro toll plaza workers on payment of the road tax. Some policemen posted on the Indus Highway joined the fracas and sided with the minister, according to the complainant.
Even when Bhutto was told about the NHA rules that a minister was not exempted from paying road tax, she used her influence to have the plaza workers arrested, alleged Naseer. The toll tax for private vehicles is Rs25.
Besides the minister, police constable Lal Baksh and eight unidentified suspects have been nominated in the FIR. The NHA project manager filed an application in the Jamshoro district and sessions court, on which additional judge Khalid Hussain Shahani ordered the police to register the case. Bhutto is the second minister of the ruling party to have been booked in a case in recent days in Hyderabad. Earlier, the fisheries minister along with some other district leaders were booked over brandishing weapons, intimidating lawyers and creating chaos inside the Hyderabad district and sessions court.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 21st, 2012.
Never mess with an army man they say (in Pakistan). Perhaps, Tauqeer Fatima Bhutto, the women rights minister, had never heard the saying or being a minister herself never gave a second thought to other “influential” forces in the country.
However, she learned this the hard way when she refused to pay the toll tax in Jamshoro 17 days ago. The in-charge at Jamshoro toll plaza, Colonel (retd) Muhammad Naseer, a project manager of the National Highway Authority (NHA), registered a case against the women rights minister for allegedly intimidating the workers with death threats. The sections in the FIR, registered at Jamshoro police station on court order, carry imprisonment of up to 10 years if convicted.
The minister and her driver allegedly argued with the Jamshoro toll plaza workers on payment of the road tax. Some policemen posted on the Indus Highway joined the fracas and sided with the minister, according to the complainant.
Even when Bhutto was told about the NHA rules that a minister was not exempted from paying road tax, she used her influence to have the plaza workers arrested, alleged Naseer. The toll tax for private vehicles is Rs25.
Besides the minister, police constable Lal Baksh and eight unidentified suspects have been nominated in the FIR. The NHA project manager filed an application in the Jamshoro district and sessions court, on which additional judge Khalid Hussain Shahani ordered the police to register the case. Bhutto is the second minister of the ruling party to have been booked in a case in recent days in Hyderabad. Earlier, the fisheries minister along with some other district leaders were booked over brandishing weapons, intimidating lawyers and creating chaos inside the Hyderabad district and sessions court.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 21st, 2012.