Babar Awan, who was travelling in a vehicle bearing national flags, was allegedly stopped at gunpoint by soldiers of the Pakistan Army in pursuit of ensuring the smooth and uninterrupted movement of the army chief’s motorcade on Constitution Avenue. This army ‘highhandedness’ did not go particularly well with the opposition benches in the NA, who were fervently vocal on the house’s floor about the ‘humiliating’ incident.
The minister himself or any other government official did not file any complaint of the incident, said police, who were unsure of the minister’s identity.
‘All I know is that a minister was allegedly stopped by the army officials during the ‘route’ for the movement of either army chief or the prime minister’ said a police official.
Chaudhry Nisar, the opposition leader in NA, equated the incident to ‘ridiculing’ the sanctity of the parliament.
‘They have no right to stop people like this. Tomorrow if they will stop me, I will not stop. We only respect the army that acts constitutionally’ vowed Nisar.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 9th, 2010.
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Now when the topic under discussion has come to the spotlight due to stopping of a member of parliament on a 'route', I take the opportunity to suggest a few changes in our checking system. The concept is derived from walled cities of early ages. we can remove all the barriers from the inside the cities and just put them on all the entry points small or big. This way the over stretched police individuals, who seem to lose interest in their duty after some time, will check people entering the city outside its parameters. Where it will be safe to conduct a thorough search and will not cause inconvenience to people living inside. To ensure safety inside the parameter patrolling parties can check suspicious persons/houses/locations any time. For this will ensure safety and security without inconvenience. To ensure the safety of VVIPs like our President, PM, COAS etc., they can be provided with small helicopters, which will ensure fast movement and lesser expenditure. I am sure of lesser expenditure as it was approximated a year ago that the route of 5 minutes cases an expenditure of about a million Rupees for any VVIP.