‘False allegations’: Gandapur for probe into ballot-snatching charge

Says will go to court if FIR not registered against his attackers

ISLAMABAD: Facing heavy criticism after being accused of taking away ballot boxes following a day of the local bodies polls, Revenue Minister Ali Amin Gandapur of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa mounted a blistering attack on police highhandedness in the province, demanding the Inspector General Police for an independent inquiry into ‘false allegations’ against him.

“…if this [registration of an FIR] can happen with a sitting minister then what would be the treatment of police with the common man,” Gandapur, who is in the limelight since May 31, told a press conference at the party’s central secretariat in Islamabad.

He is accused of barging into a polling station with his guards and armed supporters, manhandling staff and policemen and forcibly taking away ballot boxes along with his brother Umar Amin Gandapur, a candidate for Tehsil Nazim.

The Cantt SHO had registered an FIR against him for mistreatment with the police personnel which he denied, saying “being a sitting minister I had asked the SHO to reach the polling station where law and order was getting out of control while he was busy in checking buses on a road”.

To a question, he said the SHO had refused to register his FIR against those who tried to kill him and would approach the court if the case was not registered in the next two days.

Gandapur said the mob had attacked his car and fired straight bullets. “My car was bulletproof otherwise they would have killed me.”

He added: “Registration of an FIR against a minister reflects that police are independent [in K-P] but there are some who are working at other parties’ behest.”

The minister, who is on bail, dropped another bombshell, seemingly against his own party, when he referred to an FIR registered against ANP leader Mian Iftikhar Hussian after the killing of a PTI worker, saying: “I am being made a scapegoat in the wake of an FIR [against Hussain].”

He said the ballot boxes were in the possession of the Returning Officer and he had just reached there to prevent rigging.

After brushing off all the allegations, the provincial minister, who hails from DI Khan, the stronghold of the JUI-F, gave an open challenge to JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman. “Maulana Fazl has lost elections at his hometown and let’s have an election in DI Khan under the supervision of army and JUI-F would once again be defeated.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 8^th, 2015.