FAISALABAD: Flanked by three fellow MPAs, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz MPA Rana Shoaib Idrees, who is accused of ransacking a police station and thrashing policemen, finally arrived at the city police officer’s office to join the investigations.

As the CPO, Sohail Habib Tajik, had to attend a meeting called by Regional Police Officer Ahsan Tufail, the MPA met Jaranwala SP Arif Shehbaz Wazir and told him he was ready to join the investigations.

According to sources, those who accompanied Mr Idrees to the CPO’s office included MPA Sheikh Ijaz, who is also PML-N city president, MPA Usman Kharal, MPA Rao Kashif Raheem, Malik Shahid, husband of a female MPA and Faisalabad bar ex-secretary Saifur Rehman Bhatti.

The sources said the meeting between Mr Idrees and the CPO had been ‘arranged’ by an influential figure of PML-N with the help of a senior police officer of Punjab.

During the meeting, the sources said, the parliamentarians had asked the SP to make the suspect MPA part of the investigations and that Mr Idrees would formally appear before the police investigators after Eid.

The parliamentarians, the sources said, wanted police to take a ‘lenient view’ of the incident but their ‘request’ was rejected. They said that the MPAs were told this was a sensitive case in which policemen were tortured, an official building was attacked and its property was ransacked. They were assured that merit would be upheld, and the suspect MPA would have to join investigations whenever he would be summoned.

After the 10-15 minutes long meeting with Mr Wair, the parliamentarians left.

Mr Idrees, along with some 50 supporters had allegedly attacked Khurrianwala police station on July 9, thrashed the on-duty policemen and ransacked furniture and fixtures.

A law enforcement agency forwarded a report to the government mentioning that the suspect MPA had been involved in extortion.

The MPA denied the allegations and alleged that police, in connivance with some PML-Q people, were hatching 'conspiracies' against him.

CPO Tajik told Dawn the MPA had been absconding and he formally joined the investigations on Sunday. He said Jaranwala SP and Khurrianwala DSP would investigate the matter.

Rao Kashif, who had also faced wrath of PML-N leadership after he allegedly slapped a doctor at the Samundri THQ Hospital a couple of weeks ago, told Dawn that as the police were party to the case he didn’t expect justice.

He demanded a judicial probe into the issue.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2014