Dissent: Amid jubilation, ‘cop’ resigns, joins PTI

Says he couldn’t accept orders to ‘thrash people’; police have no record of him being a cop.

FAISALABAD/ ISLAMABAD: Tired and frustrated, Punjab Police Sub Inspector Yasir Javed seems to have found an unusual way to get back home. He resigned from the police and joined the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf on Monday, but ‘wishes to go home as soon as possible’ while claiming all service benefits due to retied personnel.

“Due to some unavoidable circumstances and my domestic affairs,” he stated in the resignation letter, “I tender my unconditional resignation from service with immediate effect.”

Right after submitting his resignation and still in uniform, Javed arrived at the sit-in venue, where jubilant PTI workers and supporters lofted him on their shoulders while chanting anti-government slogans.

Later, Javed said that he lost his mobile phone and official name badge during the jubilation, while adding that his service card was in his bag which was in the room where he was staying with his colleagues since his arrival in the capital.

Javed, who hails from Faisalabad, claimed that he served there for 14 years and said that he joined PTI after he got fed up from the orders of the police high-ups, allegedly directing the policemen to thrash and arrest PTI and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) workers and supporters.

“People were being oppressed and my sympathies have always been with the poor and the oppressed,” he said. “I quit because I couldn’t bear it anymore.”

Comments such as ‘proud of you’ made him feel happy and he expressed his excitement by saying that ‘it all made me feel really good.’ “This is the change that he is not willing to take any illegal orders,” said PTI worker Anayat Khan.

Citing his emotional attachment with the rally participants, Javed said that thrashing and arresting innocent for people for no apparent reason made him think about quitting from his job and going back to his hometown where he plans to become a farmer.

Despite his attachment with the PTI, he said that even if Imran Khan asked him to stay, he would go home at the earliest. Javed said that he applied for leave on medical grounds but it was rejected.

“After resigning, I will not have to follow any orders. My enslavement is over now,” he said. He alleged that the police department was also not providing good facilities.

Javed said that he was not afraid of going to jail if arrested.

Cop out or not a cop?

On the other hand, the PRO of the CPO Faisalabad said that there was “no record of any such person in the official record”.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 17^th, 2014.