MULTAN: The police are allegedly pressuring a land-grab complainant to withdraw the case at the behest of a ruling party parliamentarian.

The case has been registered against the nominated accused on the direction of a court.

Mian Khalid Siddiqui, a resident of Tibba Masoodpur, Sher Shah Road filed a case in the court of the district and sessions judge against the Muzaffarabad SHO and others on Oct 12, 2014, stating that he was at his property (where he had constructed some residential rooms, a cattle pen, shops, an auto-rickshaw workshop and a service station) on Sept 30. He alleged that Mushtaq Thaheem, Zia Shah and other activists of a proscribed outfit stormed his house and occupied it after demolishing the structure claiming that the land belonged to an Imambargah.

He said the accused damaged his property and he submitted an application to the SHO for registration of a case but instead the police officer was forcing him to go for reconciliation.

On Dec 1, he said, Additional District and Sessions Judge Ghulam Abbas directed the police to record the statement of the applicant and proceed strictly in accordance with law. The Muzaffarabad police registered a case No 781/14 on Dec 3 against 59 nominated and 110 unidentified accused under section 448/511, 452/379, 427/148 and 149 of PPC.

Earlier, the applicant had also filed a petition No 14570 with the Lahore High Court’s Multan Bench against the SSP operations, Muzaffarabad DSP and SHO for harassing him and warning him against trying to reclaim property. He requested the court to issue direction to the SSP operations not to harass and humiliate him and deal with the matter in accordance with law.

On Nov 1, Justice James Joseph restrained the police from causing any unjustified harassment to the petitioner “if he is not required in any criminal case or proceedings.”

The police through the Assistant Commissioner Prosecution requested the special judicial magistrate of the Cantonment Board Multan to seal the disputed land under section 145 of PPC. After hearing both parties and checking the record, magistrate Muhammad Arif Zia stated that according to an endowment deed by Begum Mai on Feb 7, 1989 the total land (donated for Imambargah) was 2.4 kanal while according to another document Ghulam Fiza had donated the land in 1994 for the Imambargah.

“How could two persons donate the same piece of land,” the magistrate raised the question as two different documents were produced before the court by the accused party with the claim that these women had donated the land for Imambargah. The court rejected the police request to seal the land.

Siddiqui told Dawn that PML-N MPA Shahzad Maqbool Bhutta was backing the land grabbers and demanded money to get the matter settled in his favour. He said his refusal infuriated the MPA who influenced the police to not register the case against the accused.

He said when his case was registered on the direction of the court, the police refused to arrest the accused. He said only nine accused got pre-arrest bail that was later rejected by court but the police instead of arresting them were pressuring him to give in to the MPA’s demand.

He requested Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to intervene in the matter for the early arrest of the accused besides providing him protection.

MPA Bhutta said he had asked the police not to arrest the accused if the case was fabricated and check it from the revenue department to settle the dispute. He denied asking for any money and said he had also tried to convince the accused to donate the land to a nearby graveyard instead of constructing Imambargah if the revenue department confirmed that the land belonged to them.

“Mr Siddiqui can use the property according to his will if it is proved that he is the owner of the land,” he said.

SHO Shahid Farooq denied any influence of the MPA, saying Mr Bhutta being a public representative was intervening to settle the dispute. He said the police did not arrest the accused as some of them got bail and others were not involved.

Published in Dawn January 26th , 2015

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