GUJRAT: The inquiry team constituted by the Punjab chief minister to probe the hit-and-run incident during the rally of former prime minister, completed its proceedings in Lalamusa on Saturday.

The team, headed by Additional IG Abu Bakar Khuda Bakhsh, had inspected the accident’s spot, besides recording the statements of eyewitnesses, heirs of the deceased boy and local police officials and left Lalamusa the same day.

Meanwhile, the registration number installed on the BMW vehicle that had crushed the 12-year-old boy in Lalamusa on Friday, is said to be a fake one as the law-enforcement agencies (LEAs) have so far been unable in arresting either the owner or driver of the vehicle.

The [registration] number SS 875 installed on the BMW jeep, has actually been registered for a Suzuki Bolan car (model 2011) in the name of Muhammad Ilyas Butt s/o Mushtaq Ahmed instead of the BMW that was part of the protocol vehicles of Nawaz Sharif’s convoy.

Police had inserted the same registration number of the BMW vehicle into the already registered case under section 320 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) on the report of the deceased boy’s paternal uncle.

However, a senior police officer on condition of anonymity said the use of fake number plate had been a normal practice regarding the protocol vehicles of the VVIPs motorcades owing to security reasons.

JI EMIR: Jamaat-i-Islami Emir Senator Sirajul Haq on Sunday morning attended the Qul ceremony of [deceased] boy Hamid Chughtai.

Speaking on the occasion, he said: “Had the participants in the convoy stopped after the vehicle struck the boy and shifted him to the hospital, the intensity of the agony of his parents might have been mitigated.”

Federal minister for capital administration and development Tariq Fazal Chaudhary, minister of state for inter-provincial coordination Dr Darshan Laal, Punjab minister for local bodies Manshaullah Butt and PML-Q women wing members also visited the bereaved family and offered prayers for the departed soul.

Published in Dawn, August 14th, 2017