FAISALABAD, Jan 17: The row between the city district nazim and the Pakistan People’s Party secretary-general has taken a turn for the worse after the allegations of a woman’s abduction against the latter have come alive again.

The PML-Q-backed nazim group had accused the PPP leader’s brother of abducting a woman just a few days back. The woman, who had then claimed that she was abducted by none, retracted her statement at a press conference the other day and accused the PPP leader’s brother of abducting and raping her.

Farzana Bibi’s alleged abduction stirred up row between City District Nazim Rana Zahid Tauseef’s brother Arif Tauseef, a PML-Q candidate for PP-67, and his rival, PPP city secretary-general Dr Asad Moazzam, as the police registered a case against Shahzad Moazzam, a younger brother of Dr Asad who is union council 222 nazim, under section 496-A of the Women Protection Act. They, however, did not arrest the suspect.

Dr Asad claimed that it was a ploy of the former ruling party’s local leaders to dent electioneering of his brother who had been implicated in the case.

Appearing at a press conference along with a nazim and few members of local NGOs, Farzana said some “unknown criminals” abducted her on Dec 29 when she was on way to her parents. “They handed me over to Mr Shahzad who shifted me to some undisclosed location and raped me several times”, she alleged.

She said Gulberg Circle DSP Shahid Butt and the Ghulam Muhammadabad police station SHO negotiated with the accused for her safe return. Thereafter, she said, she informed her brother Asif about her abduction through Mr Shahzad’s cell phone and the accused fixed three different dates — Jan 5, 6 and 8 — for setting me at liberty.

A blame game between the two families started when the Ghulam Muhammadabad police registered an abduction case against Shahzad Moazzam a couple of days ago.

Arif Tauseef is contesting the election for the first time while Dr Asad, the PPP man emerged victorious from PP-67 with 22,291 votes in the 2002 general election.

The police registered a case on the complaint of Farzana’s brother Asif who claimed that Shahzad Moazzam kidnapped his sister on Dec 29. He said he came to know about Shahzad’s involvement in the abduction when the latter informed him about his sister through his cell phone.

Farzana said her family was being threatened with dire consequences and some police officials also were distorting facts to support the accused.

She threatened to commit suicide if action was not taken against the accused, also appealing to the government and police higher-ups to get the perpetrator arrested.

Sources said the woman resided at Darul Aman in Lahore. After her appearance before the police, she was taken to a local magistrate by Razaabad police post in-charge Rana Mazhar. The magistrate recorded her statement in which she denied she was abducted, they said.

Coming up with fresh statement, she said previously the police got her signature on a blank paper and prepared a forged avowal.

Speaking at a press conference after Farzana’s first appearance before the police, Dr Asad claimed that the Ranas had staged a drama to bring infamy to them. “Being our political rivals, they (the Rana family) are perturbed because of our popularity and chances of my victory in the general election. They have resorted to negative tactics to pressure us, but their efforts will not succeed,” he asserted.

He alleged that the district nazim got registered a case by influencing the police. He said his brother Shahzad was just mediating a domestic dispute on the request of Farzana and the latter was insisting that she be sent to Darul Aman.

In the wake of row between the political rivals, DIG (Operations) Muhammad Aslam Tareen has instructed the investigation officer to probe the issue without any political pressure.