Leaguers on a rampage?
The storming of an Islamabad police station by more than two dozen armed-to-the-teeth supporters of PML(N) MNA Anjum Aqil Khan to secure his release from police custody within hours of his arrest is a reflection on the party whose leadership doesn’t tire of preaching morality while training its guns on the political rivals for patronising corruption.
The police officials’ argument that they had let the lawmaker go fearing that retaliation from the force could put his life in danger failed to satisfy Interior Minister Rehman Malik who immediately ordered the suspension and arrest of the concerned SP and the Station House officer. Meanwhile, the police registered a case against Khan and his accomplices under the Anti-Terrorist Act and launched a crackdown to apprehend the absconding criminals.
The MNA who faces multi-billion land scam charges went into hiding after being summoned by the FIA for investigation into the National Police Foundation case and resurfaced only after obtaining a pre-arrest bail from the court a few weeks ago. There were reports that a PPP leader started sheltering him after his own party had refused to protect him.
The PML(N) leadership was right in that if its parliamentarian had committed any unlawful act he should face the charges in the court of law. But while claiming impeccably clean credentials in politics, the party has failed to rein in its legislators some of whom are alleged to be involved in land-grabbing. A case in point is the protest organised by the representative organisations of journalists in Lahore on Friday against some League MPAs who have been accused of extending patronage to the qabza group operating in the housing society established by the Punjab government for media persons.
It is time for Mian Nawaz and the Punjab CM to firmly deal with the issue by directing their parliamentarians to come clean about their financial status rather than looking the other way when they receive complaints about the involvement of their party men in criminal activities.