ISLAMABAD: A recent investigation by the Islamabad police revealed that an influential officer of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) abused the criminal justice system to settle a personal score with a Sialkot-based family.

Though the inquiry report found him guilty of making a mockery of the law, the officer was still at large. Sources told Dawn that the report has been shelved on the order of the higher authorities.

The probe by the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) focused on the registration of FIRs against a Sialkot-based family in three different police stations in Islamabad on the application of the victims. A woman had approached police against the registration of FIRs against her husband, son, grandson, and daughter in the Sumbal, Banigala, Industrial Area police stations in Islamabad and Sialkot. Superintendent of Police Rukhsar Mehdi initiated the probe, which termed the registration of criminal cases against the citizens as a “mockery of the justice system.”

The report also named the CDA officer stating, “There is one government officer Iftikhar Ali Haideri [who] has played havoc with the entire justice system.” As per the report, Mr Haideri’s brother Qamar Abbas had a brawl with the applicant’s family in Sialkot and since then the officer “was trying to settle his score by twisting the long arm of law.”

The report stated, “This entire plot hatched by this government officer is shameless but the height of the shame is when an innocent young lady got arrested by the Gujrat police and later on by the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) Police in false and criminal cases on the day she was to wed.”

“What a shame and dishonour inflicted on her and her immediate family,” the report added. The report recommended that the “officer Mr Iftikhar Ali Haideri must answer for whatever dirty games he played”.

The investigation found that “the FIRs of Sumbal and Banigala police stations are false whereas the implication of the victims in Industrial Area Police Station is a lie.” The report further recommended that “the said government officer must face the law of the land for violating it so ruthlessly.”

CDA officer rejects report

Mr Haideri, however, rejected the report. “Neither I was the complainant, nor a witness in these FIRs,” he told Dawn. “The police have registered the FIRs, and I, being an officer of the CDA, have no jurisdiction to order registration of such cases against anyone,” he added. According to him, the report of the SP was based on surmises and conjectures and was prepared without giving him ample opportunity for defence. He said that if the FIRs were based on lies, then the station house officers of the respective police stations were equally responsible, but he was singled out in the investigation.

Islamabad police spokesman Taqi Jawad did not comment on the issue. He, however, said that he was seeking information from the relevant quarters.

It may be mentioned that the same officer was accused of taking a Rs5 million bribe from the owner of a shopping mall. The accountability court convicted him, but the Islamabad High Court (IHC) later set aside his conviction.

Likewise, Mr Haideri was expelled from the Mid-Career Management Course (MCMC) in 2020 for “using unfair means” during an online exam at the National School of Public Policy (NSPP) Lahore and was facing a departmental inquiry. However, he was reportedly sent for this course to a different institute after a couple of months without the mandatory documentation required for the training course.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2024