Arms display: PPP leader booked, but no arrest made
The police registered a case nominating PPP leader.
Public display of weapons, licenced or unlicenced, is not allowed in Islamabad under section 144. PHOTO: FILE
ISLAMABAD:
The Industrial Area police have so far made no arrests despite nominating two people including Pakistan People’s Party Deputy Information Secretary Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar for allegedly carrying weapons without permits.
Khokhar’s convoy of vehicles was stopped by the police at a traffic signal in Sector I-8 on Tuesday after the traffic police sent an alert about the presence of armed men in the vehicles travelling from the airport towards Faizabad on Islamabad Highway.
While searching the vehicles, the police found weapons. But the police alleged that Khokhar — the adviser to the president on human rights during the PPP government — and his armed entourage could not produce licences for the weapons.
Industrial Area Police Station House Officer Qasim Niazi initially let the men go. Later, he was suspended on the direction of the interior minister for not arresting the offenders including Khokhar, according to sources.
Later, the police registered a case nominating Khokhar and Naveed, who was accompanying him, for carrying weapons without permits.
Niazi was reinstated the same day, allegedly after senior police officials intervened on his behalf, police sources said. He was on duty at the police station on Wednesday.
Industrial Area police officers said there was no progress on the case. They also said the First Information Report (FIR) did not have any charge of Khokhar’s men disobeying an order issued by a public servant.
This means that Khokhar was not booked under section 188 of the Pakistan Penal Code, which is applied to violators of section 144. Public display of weapons, licenced or unlicenced, is not allowed in Islamabad under section 144.
Khokhar said on Tuesday that he had kept armed guards because police had not provided him security to protect him from extortionists who he claimed had been threatening him. He said that he had produced weapon permits to the police on the spot and a fake case was registered later to politically-victimise him.
Meanwhile, lawyers from the Islamabad District Bar Association observed a partial strike to protest the FIR against Khokhar, who is also a member of the bar.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 1st, 2014.
The Industrial Area police have so far made no arrests despite nominating two people including Pakistan People’s Party Deputy Information Secretary Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar for allegedly carrying weapons without permits.
Khokhar’s convoy of vehicles was stopped by the police at a traffic signal in Sector I-8 on Tuesday after the traffic police sent an alert about the presence of armed men in the vehicles travelling from the airport towards Faizabad on Islamabad Highway.
While searching the vehicles, the police found weapons. But the police alleged that Khokhar — the adviser to the president on human rights during the PPP government — and his armed entourage could not produce licences for the weapons.
Industrial Area Police Station House Officer Qasim Niazi initially let the men go. Later, he was suspended on the direction of the interior minister for not arresting the offenders including Khokhar, according to sources.
Later, the police registered a case nominating Khokhar and Naveed, who was accompanying him, for carrying weapons without permits.
Niazi was reinstated the same day, allegedly after senior police officials intervened on his behalf, police sources said. He was on duty at the police station on Wednesday.
Industrial Area police officers said there was no progress on the case. They also said the First Information Report (FIR) did not have any charge of Khokhar’s men disobeying an order issued by a public servant.
This means that Khokhar was not booked under section 188 of the Pakistan Penal Code, which is applied to violators of section 144. Public display of weapons, licenced or unlicenced, is not allowed in Islamabad under section 144.
Khokhar said on Tuesday that he had kept armed guards because police had not provided him security to protect him from extortionists who he claimed had been threatening him. He said that he had produced weapon permits to the police on the spot and a fake case was registered later to politically-victimise him.
Meanwhile, lawyers from the Islamabad District Bar Association observed a partial strike to protest the FIR against Khokhar, who is also a member of the bar.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 1st, 2014.