EDITORIAL: An inquiry ordered by the Punjab chief secretary into an arrest concerning the illegal business of luxury non-custom paid vehicles will be watched very closely to see if the police department has indeed busted a gang involved in this criminal activity or if law enforcement agencies are up to their old tricks once again; playing into the hands of powerful, connected politicians to help settle personal scores.
The matter hit the headlines when a retired navy captain petitioned the Lahore High Court (LHC), alleging that his son, a BBA student, was illegally taken into custody in a raid on his house after registering a fake/forged robbery case.
The police, on the other hand, insist that they have uncovered a gang involved in this business, which also includes some serving officers of the Punjab Excise and Taxation Department.
This is a startling revelation if true, especially if government officials are involved in this scam. But that would beg the obvious question of why the said personnel have not been apprehended and, if they have, why has this matter not been reported so far? Also, why was the LHC forced to observe that the boy “was shown arrested in a case lodged on 25 December 2022 under section 392 of the PPC at Police Station Chung following an incident reported on 24 December 2022 against unknown accused?” And why did the court also declare that during this period the police neither submitted an interim report nor filed an untraced persons report because no accused was ever arrested in this case?
It shouldn’t take too long for an official inquiry to find answers to such straight-forward questions. Meanwhile, the federal government must rethink why there is not a uniform policy for non-custom paid vehicles in the whole country.
In ex-FATA (federally administered tribal areas), for example, their use is still permitted, even after those areas were merged into KP (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa). Little wonder then that police officials in other provinces are forced to deal with this issue as well. Perhaps they will finally be settled now that this case has brought them so inconveniently out into the open.
Regardless, the police force clearly has a far way to go before it can even resemble a professional, efficient law enforcement outfit. For, even if its position is right in this case and the boy in question is indeed guilty of the crime he’s accused of by the police, why was he not duly charged, in keeping with the law, and why do we see arrests made on flimsy, indirect pretexts and later explained as if pieces of some puzzles are being forced into place?
That is why it is extremely important to get to the bottom of this whole affair. Because if there is political interference and police officials are being used to do the dirty work of political actors – for which it also has to hoodwink the courts in the process – then very serious action needs to be taken.
That, once again, is why this case has stirred so much interest and all eyes are now on the court to see what it does with the investigation report when it comes out.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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