LAHORE, Oct 23: Law Minister Raja Basharat seemed to have won the hearts of the opposition on Thursday when he promised stern action against the police officials accused of highhandedness in two call-attention notices in the Punjab Assembly.

He said the police would now have to deliver the goods as they had been given all facilities by the government.

The call attention notices were given by Dr Nazir Ahmad Mitthu Dogar and Sheikh Tanvir Ahmad.

Mitthu Dogar had stated the alleged rape of a Burewala girl by a drunk ASI and his four accomplices. The girl is Hafiz-i-Quran.

Sheikh Tanvir Ahmad had mentioned in his notice the alleged custodial killing of one Raja Muhammad Ashraf by Dina (Jhelum) police.

What the law minister did to satisfy the movers and the opposition was to first narrate the police response to the two incidents and then give his independent opinion on them.

In the first case, he said, the police had reported that the accused had only tried to molest the girl and torn her clothes. “Initially, there was no mention of the ASI in the FIR registered on a complaint of the father of the girl. The FIR was amended afterwards on the complaint of the girl.”

It was not true that efforts were being made to protect the ASI, the minister said and added, he had been suspended on Sept 25 and raids were being conducted to arrest him.

The law minister stated that in his view the case should have been registered on the complaint of the girl. Her statement was recorded days after the incident. This was wrong.

He also questioned why the accused ASI had not yet been arrested despite the cancellation of his bail before arrest.

The law minister said the ASI was suspended many days after the incident, which again was wrong, assuring the house that stern action would be taken against him. The case would be handled by the provincial monitoring cell. The government was deputing a special prosecutor for the trial and he would himself monitor the proceedings, he said.

He said action would also be taken against the police officers who failed to take proper action against the ASI and others. The results would also be submitted to the house, he said.

The law minister said the police report about the incident in Dina was also not correct. It stated that Raja Ashraf was arrested in connection with a murder case and he had tried to escape during the interrogation. When the police went after him he fell on the road and sustained injuries. As a result police decided to take him to a hospital for treatment but he again jumped out of the police vehicle and sustained injuries. He later died in the hospital and a case was registered against two constables on the report of his brother.

The law minister said an ASI was suspended afterwards but it was strange that he had not yet been arrested. The government was constituting a team under a range SP to ensure the arrest of all the officials concerned.

He said it was strange that the ASI was not arrested despite his presence at the police lines. A departmental inquiry would also be conducted to look into this aspect of the issue.

Mr Dogar asked the minister to visit Burewala to give a sense of security to the victim family and the area people, as prime minister Nawaz Sharif used to visit such places. So far none of the government officials had gone there to give moral support to the girl, he said.

The law minister agreed to a proposal of PML-N MPA Saba Sadiq that a committee of women MPAs should be formed to monitor cases of violence against women. “Make the parliamentary secretary of home department who is also a woman, its head and we will pursue every incident to provide justice to the victims,” he said.

Senior PPP MPA Nishat Afza appreciated the law minister’s effort but embarrassed his colleagues in the cabinet by suggesting that Mr Basharat should train the “army of ministers” so that they could also perform well and relieve him of the responsibility of representing the government alone.

The minister said the government was giving a grant-in-aid to all the bar associations. The PML-Q had no following in any bar association, he said. The government had recently given Rs2 million to every high court bar association, one million rupees to each district bar association and Rs300,000 to each tehsil bar association besides giving Rs10 million to the Punjab Bar Council, he added.