Wazirabad attack: Senate body expresses its anger over non-submission of JIT report

ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary body on Friday expressed anger over the non-submission of the detailed report of the joint investigation team (JIT) constituted to probe the attack on the container of former premier Imran Khan at Wazirabad during the long march and reconstitution of the JIT by the federal government.

Senator Mohsin Aziz, while chairing Senate Standing Committee on Interior, said that this is a very non-serious attitude on the part of the Ministry of Interior that it failed to present a detailed report of the Wazirabad incident despite, the directives of the parliamentary body.

Senator Saifullah Abro said that if the Ministry of Interior could not present the report of the attack on the former premier despite the passage of months what will happen to the common man?

Senator Dr Shahzad Waseem said that is why the federal government has reconstituted the JIT. Why the Interior Ministry did not mention the number of attackers and forensic reports circulating in the media in the brief reports it presented before the committee?

A senior official of the Ministry of Interior told the committee that the federal government reconstituted the previous JIT as it was comprised of five members all belonging to the Punjab police with no representation of any other investigating intelligence agency. The reconstitution of the JIT is the prerogative of the federal government, he said.

When Senator Waseem questioned him that is to why the members of the previous JIT were removed from the new JIT, the official of the Interior Ministry replied that Ghulam Mehmood Dogar, CCPO Lahore who had been appointed as convener of the JIT had been suspended by the Establishment Division. Dogar had also been involved in a number of controversies, he further said.

Senator Waseem further said that Dogar was restored after the court order then how can you consider him suspended?

Faisal Chaudhry, a lawyer who attended the committee as a special invite removing members of the previous JIT reflects mala fide of the government. Section 19 of the ATA, 1997 does not put any bar to include such and such members in the JIT, he said.

Aziz said that the complainant who is a former premier is not satisfied with JIT formed for the investigation of an attack against him.

The chairman of the committee asked officials of the Interior Ministry to submit detailed reports before the next meeting and also summoned the inspector general of police (IGP) Punjab.

The committee also discussed the arrest of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry and Awami Muslim League (AML) Chief Sheikh Rasheed and condemn the humiliation of these leaders during the custody and section included in the first information report (FIR) registered against them.

Aziz, while taking up the FIR registered against PTI leader and former MNA Shandana Gulzar, said that if the statement made by Shahdana is tantamount to sedition then today the entire committee has committed sedition.

The former MNA, while briefing the committee, said that the police registered a fake case against her following her statement. Despite obtaining a stay from the high court, police raided his flat in the presence of her aged mother. She went to the Secretariat Police Station but the police refused to register her case, she said.

“What I stated, I stand by it”, she said.

IGP Islamabad Dr Nasir Akbar Khan told the committee all these cases are in different courts and courts will decide it. He said that sub judice matters cannot be discussed. If these cases were fake then the court would have rejected them, he further said.

Senator Saifullah Abro said that Sheikh Rasheed was pushed by police while presenting him before the court and Fawad Chaudhry was brought to court fully covered in black cloth. Is this also in the law? he asked.

He further said that a case should also be registered onthe remarks made by Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah about former premier Imran Khan.

“I will come to the police station and see how the police will register the FIR against the interior minister,” he said.

A senior official of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police briefed the committee about the terror attack at the Peshawar Police Line mosque. Out of 102 martyrs, 97 were police personnel, he said, adding that a case has been registered under the Anti-Terrorism Act. A JIT has also been formed for investigation, he said.

Senator Dilawar Khan, Semee Ezdi, Fawzia Arshad, and senior officials of the Ministry of Interior and police attended the meeting.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023