QUETTA: Police on Saturday arrested a member of the Balochistan Assembly and obtained his five-day remand for allegedly running over a traffic warden on a busy Quetta road a couple of days ago.

MPA Abdul Majeed Achakzai, who is also the chairman of the provincial Public Accounts Committee, was taken into custody at his residence in Satellite Town by a police team led by a senior officer early on Saturday morning.

He was produced before Judicial Magistrate (Quetta) Shahnawaz Langove, who remanded him in police custody for five days.

MPA chides media upon arriving at court premises

The MPA was brought to the court premises in an armoured vehicle. He was not handcuffed. Reporters and cameramen were present when he alighted from the police vehicle.

A visibly irked Achakzai, without showing any remorse over the incident, expressed his anger to the media by passing some uncharitable remarks.

The incident took place on June 20 when a fast-moving vehicle belonging to Mr Achakzai hit and ran over the traffic warden, identified as Sub-Inspector Haji Attaullah Dashti, at the GPO Chowk. The warden suffered serious injuries and later died at hospital.

Initially, police registered a case of accident against unidentified people. But after the CCTV footage of the accident went viral on social media and was repeatedly shown by TV channels, Inspector General of Police, Balochistan, Ahsan Mehboob and other senior police officials decided to lodge a manslaughter case against the MPA of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party.

Mr Achakzai had also appeared on some TV channels and provided some justifications.

He admitted to driving the vehicle when the accident took place and also expressed his desire to settle the issue with the victim’s family as per tribal traditions. He expressed his willingness to pay the blood money to the deceased family and compensation to an injured passer-by.

As the family of the late policeman lives in Dera Ghazi Khan, the MPA decided to go there along with tribal elders to meet them. However, he was arrested prior to his departure.

Mr Achakzai was elected a member of the Balochistan Assembly in the 2013 elections from a Qila Abdullah constituency (PB-13).

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2017