LAHORE, May 22: Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi has reportedly conveyed his displeasure to the IGP for the ‘discourtesy’ shown to Law Minister Raja Basharat and Chief Secretary Kamran Rasool on the occasion of the first passing out of the patrol posts force at the Chung training school on Thursday.
According to official sources, the chief minister has also asked the law minister not to press the matter further in view of the retirement of the IGP in near future.
They said the law minister was received at the venue by a constable and made to sit with ‘ordinary’ people. A personal friend accompanying the minister sat on one of the sofas meant for the VIPs mistaking them for public seats.
The law minister later walked to a protocol officer after two other ministers were also made to sit with him to know the seating arrangement.
“The officer approached the IGP for guidance but the reply he reportedly gave was overheard by the minister who got upset but kept himself cool,” the sources said. The minister then took a seat next to his friend (on the sofa) on his own.
In the meantime the chief secretary came there while holding the hand of a police inspector. On seeing him the minister reportedly got up and asked a DIG sitting besides him to vacate the seat for the chief secretary.
The sources said the minister’s anger boiled up into a protest when the chief secretary told him that no body had received him and the inspector accompanying him was a personal acquaintance.
The law minister narrated the entire episode to the chief minister during his way back to his secretariat, the sources claimed.—- Intikhab Hanif