Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice (CJ) Ijaz Ahmed Chaudhry ordered Punjab Police Inspector General (IG) Javed Iqbal on Wednesday to form an inquiry committee to probe into seven fake cases registered against Lahore-based architect/contractor Azam Saeed allegedly on the directives of Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Shahbaz Sharif and barred police from arresting the contractor during the inquiry.
Azam Saeed had contracted with the Tourism Development Corporation Punjab (TDCP) to build a park in front of CM’s House in Murree in July 2009. Later, his contract was cancelled without clearing his dues worth Rs 6 million as he refused to “share profits” with the “men of higher authorities”. When he protested against the injustice, he was implicated in false cases to deter contractors from going against the authorities.
The IG and Punjab Advocate General Khwaja Harris Ahmad were summoned by the court in the case of the endless victimisation of Azam, a National College of Arts graduate.
During proceedings, the court was told that some of the seven cases were registered by police on complaints received by post, with no complainant on record.
Harris, on behalf of the CM and Punjab government, admitted that two of the seven first information reports (FIRs) against Azam were “ordered” by the CM because the contractor and Engineer Kamran Gull had used sub-standard material in building the park and had failed to meet the deadline to complete the construction despite receiving the promised salary. Harris said he or the Punjab government had no link with the other five FIRs which were probably registered on complaints from citizens against the contractor. Azam’s counsel however rejected Harris’ statement terming it a baseless and fabricated story of the government and said Azam had been victimised for not aiding the “illegal designs” of the TDCP administration to accommodate the TDCP men in the task and the CM had to suffer the wrath of TDCP managing director. Upon this, the CJ ordered the IG to constitute an inquiry committee to investigate all the cases and submit a report to the court by September 13. The CJ allowed the Rawalpindi senior superintendent of police to probe the cases on IG’s recommendation and directed him to include the contractor in the inquiry without arresting him. The court also ordered petitioner Azam to be part of the inquiry and get his statements recorded. The CJ also asked the IG to take stern action against police officials involved in registering fake cases against the petitioner after the enquiry.
Earlier, TDCP MD Saad A Khan had admitted that the FIRs of stealing construction material from the park were registered against the contractor on the CM’s directives.
well done Your Excellency CM Sahib. This is precisely all that we can expect from you. Unfortunately, you have the vision and the abilities of a union councillor.
Comments are closed.