July 19, 2008	Saturday	Rajab 15, 1429

RAWALPINDI, July 18: An attempt by District Nazim Raja Javed Ikhlas to court arrest on Friday created a quandary for the newly-appointed City Police Officer (CPO) Rao Iqbal who refused to take him into custody amid heavy media presence.

Mr Ikhlas, flanked by scores of public representatives associated with the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), reached the CPO offices and offered his detention to protest registration of a case against him on the complaint of a lady councillor from the rival Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) camp.

On Wednesday, PML-N backed councillor Zaibun Nisa brawled with a PML nazim during the budget session of the District Assembly, and instead of getting a case registered against the actual person, she flatly nominated the city nazim in the FIR.

Mr Ikhlas and other PML leaders criticised the CPO for registering a case against the top district administrator without probing the incident.

The city nazim had announced on Thursday that he and his supporters would court arrest at the CPO offices, however he escaped detention because of the presence of a large number of media persons, who assembled there to cover the whole episode.

As Mr Ikhlas stood outside the building, a police officer told him to “come inside and have a cup of tea with the CPO”, but denied entry to the journalists.

The nazim rejected the offer and said the media persons and other union council nazims would accompany him to the CPO office so that they could “watch the whole drama”.

In the end, the police told Mr Ikhlas that he would not be arrested in front of the media, prompting him to question as to why the CPO ordered the registration of the FIR without listening to his side of the story. He sought a clear explanation from CPO Iqbal.

The elected representatives on the occasion chanted slogans against the CPO and the Punjab government for allegedly implicating PML supporters in fabricated cases.

Interestingly, the CPO refused to meet the waiting journalists, the city nazim and other councillors despite repeated requests from all.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Ikhlas demanded withdrawal of the FIR against him, and warned the police “not to play in the hands of any politician”.