LAHORE: A ruling party parliamentarian created a scene in the Punjab Assembly on Friday when he blamed a party MNA for using “abusive language” against him.

Taking part in the House on general discussion on law and order, Mian Muhammad Rafiq from Toba Tek Singh said lawlessness was reigning supreme in the province. He said when an elected member did not feel himself safe how could an ordinary man.

With his eyes filled with tears, he said MNA Asadur Rehman used abusive language against him for raising a voice against alleged corruption of the MNA, also from Toba Tek Singh.

Calling himself Anna Hazare (an Indian social activist who raised a movement against corruption) of Toba, Rafiq vowed to continue speaking out against the corrupt like Mr Rehman. He said the MNA was also not allowing his (Rafiq’s) role in the district development committee of which Mr Rehman is chairman.

The MPA lamented that he pleaded his case before the chief minister as well as the inspector general of police but to no avail, while a motion submitted on the issue with the assembly secretariat was also not being allowed to be tabled in the House.

He threatened a daily walkout of the House, protest on the stairs of the assembly building and even resigning from his seat if he failed to get justice.

Toba’s MPA cries out against lawlessness

The chair, being held by former deputy speaker Manazir Ranjha at that time, assured the MPA that the entire House was with him in winning justice for him and hoped that the two ministers present there, Home Minister Shuja Khanzada and Human Rights Minister Tahir Khalil Sindhu, would also take note of the situation and report the matter to the authorities concerned.

The opposition benches thumped desks when Mr Rafiq was speaking but avoided playing on the issue.

Opening the discussion, Khanzada said the provincial government was speedily implementing the National Action Plan as the chief minister had made it his mission to change the police station culture. He said the country could not progress unless the poor were provided justice and for the purpose the police would have to be freed from political influence.

He said terrorism is the biggest challenge for the government which is giving top priority to resolve the issue and the armed forces as well as other security agencies are cooperating with the government.

PTI MPA Murad Raas lamented that laws were there but these were not being implemented. He said more and more funds were being allocated for the police department each year but the measure was failing to bring down the crime graph. He said the rich were above the law but the poor were being imprisoned for petty crimes.

He doesn’t believe that the Punjab police is free from political influence and asserted that the law and order could not improve unless this influence was curtailed.

During the Question Hour on home department, Khanzada told the House that police tortured the suspects in various offences only because they lacked training in new investigation techniques. The torture culture, he said, would end only after police reforms, while 408 new inspectors passed out from the Sihala police training college would also help end this menace.

Responding to a query by JI’s Waseem Akhtar, the minister admitted that SHOs were transferred quite early but under the police reforms their tenure was being fixed at one year. This duration, he said, could be enhanced in the best interest of the masses.

Admitting that the Punjab police was facing manpower shortage, he said the shortage was being bridged by recruitment through the National Testing Service (NTS) but being a complicated procedure the purpose could not be achieved in the short term.

It would take at least 10 years to meet the police manpower requirement, he said, adding that the department also lacked the capacity to train such a large number of recruits and for the purpose the army was being approached.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2015

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