September 30, 2007	Sunday	Ramazan 17, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Sept 29: The manner in which law-enforcement agencies behaved during the scrutiny of nomination papers of the presidential candidates on Saturday indicates that when it comes to such brute action; law, ethics and unity of command become irrelevant.

A massive chaos was witnessed among the Islamabad police, anti-terrorist squad and police recruits, as some time they violated even the directives of their seniors and attacked the lawyers and mediapersons. However, they used all their skills to beat and thrash the lawyers and mediapersons on the Constitution Avenue, injuring many of them.

Three APCs deployed on the occasion also fired tear gas shells in and around the Supreme Court building to disrupt the gathering of lawyers.

SSP Islamabad Dr Naeem Khan was the person who provoked and challenged the lawyers again and again, while the IGP Moravet Ali Shah supervised the attacks on journalists. As a result, the Constitution Avenue was turned into a battle field.

The police recruits were the first to pelt the lawyers with stones when they tried to reach the Election Commission office at around 10:20am.

Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Chaudhry Mohammad Ali tried to push back the recruits and the police personnel and directed them to stop the baton charge, but the policemen under the supervision of the SSP did not heed to his directives.

The SSP and other senior police officers were also seen throwing stones on the lawyers which was retaliated by the protesters.

Some senior lawyers came to the SSP and asked him to step back after the junior lawyers lost their tempers, but the police official did not budge and continued to challenge the protesters.

During the scuffles, police personnel and the lawyers also used abusive language against each others. Later, the recruits and police personnel started beating and thrashing some journalists who were standing near the SSP. Interestingly, the SSP remained silent and did not take any action on the incident.

Following this, the mediapersons approached the IGP to complain about the incident but he too remained unmoved. The law enforcers even thrashed the mediapersons in front of the IGP. The attitude of the two senior police officers gave the impression that the SSP had been directed to take action against the lawyers while the IGP was there to deal with the mediapersons.— Staff Reporter