BAHAWALPUR: Demanding a judicial inquiry into the Islamia University of Bahawalpur’s narcotics and video scandal, Federal Minister for Food Security Tariq Bashir Cheema denied involvement of his son in the scam.

Addressing a press conference accompanied by his son, Walidad Cheema, at his residence here on Sunday, the minister alleged that his political rivals were bent upon defaming and damaging him politically.

Mr Cheema’s press conference on the issue and denial come after a journalist posted a vlog on his social media account, alleging that the minister’s son was the actual cause of the scandal and police action.

He had alleged that the arrests of the chief security officer of the IUB and others were made not to expose the criminal activities and curb the drugs but to get the videos that had Tariq Cheema’s son in them.

He said the police were supporting the minister and they were trying the push the actual matter under the carpet. Other journalists and vloggers also made similar allegations.

In his presser, Tariq Cheema asked caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi to move the LHC chief justice for holding a judicial inquiry into the scandal, saying that the probe should have its logical conclusion, exposing the real culprits, including the teachers and students.

He said the judicial commission would put an end to the propaganda over the scam and demanded that the commission’s members should make public the real events and expose the culprits so that such heinous incidents might not happen again.

Tariq Bashir Cheema demands judicial commission to probe the scam

The minister made it clear that neither he nor his son had any link with the man called Ehsan Jatt who was presently working in Karachi.

Jatt was named as a close friend of Walidad by some journalists on social media.

Mr Cheema hailed the timely action of District Police Officer Syed Abbas Shah in the IUB’s scandal; however, he referred to some lapses committed by the police in the case.

He demanded that all 113 suspects mentioned in the DPO report must be taken to task. He condemned certain elements and, what he termed, irresponsible media persons for attempting to defame the IUB.

The minister said the IUB’s former VC Prof Dr Athar Mehboob should stay in the country till finalisation of the inquiry. He said the former VC should have taken timely action to book the real culprits for the sanctity of the university.

At the same time, he volunteered that his and son’s names might be placed on the ECL for a transparent judicial inquiry.

The minister announced to file defamation cases against the media persons who, without taking his version, indulged in a mud-slinging campaign against him in their programmes.

Mr Cheema made an announcement that his son would contest the National Assembly election from his native tehsil of Yazman. However, he himself was still undecided about contesting the poll.

Caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi told media in Gujranwala on Sunday that an inquiry initiated by the provincial government into the issue had been completed and culprits identified. He said a judicial inquiry, if required, could be ordered.

Meanwhile, three other inquiries by the HEC, PHED and IUB VC are in process.

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2023