Gandapur wants Islamabad IG removed over KP House raid

PESHAWAR: Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur on Tuesday warned the Centre to remove the Inspector General of Police, Islamabad, who had raided the Pakhtunkhwa House in the federal capital forthwith or he will again lead a protest rally towards the federal capital.

Speaking in the provincial assembly, he narrated his ordeal that he had gone through while leading a protest rally of his party to D-Chowk in Islamabad, his visit to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa House, escape from Islamabad and reaching Peshawar via Hazara and Malakand divisions. The narration was different from the one that the chief minister had given last Sunday night when he had suddenly resurfaced in the provincial assembly session.

“I remained hidden on the rooftop of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa House building for about four hours, then exited by jumping the wall in the darkness and reached Monal side from where I was picked by my staff driver in a car and reached the House of a DPO (District Police Officer) in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa who was not present at his home,” the chief minister said and added then he had covered all the distance from Battagram, Torghar, Shangla, Swat, Mardan, Charsadda districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa without his protocol staff and escort. “I even had no money and no personal mobile phone all the way to Peshawar,” he added.

Gandapur claimed that he had witnessed ransacking, beating of police and other staff in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa House at the hands of Rangers who had not only violated the sanctity of the Pakhtunkhwa House but also insulted the entire Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which was an integral part of the federation of Pakistan.

However, the chief minister, who is the provincial president of PTI, paid tributes to Pakistan Army who were deputed in Islamabad and said that he had ended his protest rally as he did not want a clash with the army deputed on special duty in Islamabad.

The chief minister claimed that a committee had been formed to provide legal assistance to all the arrested party workers as they had shown true commitment, loyalty and obedience to the PTI founding chairman while marching towards Islamabad D-Chowk for a peaceful rally.

He claimed that he was not a hypocrite and explained the entire situation on the assembly floor for the satisfaction of party workers and lawmakers. Parliamentary party leader of Pakistan Peoples Party Ahmad Karim Kundi, who is also a cousin of the chief minister, declared all his narration as lies and called him a coward and a mentally-retarded person who had left his party workers in the middle of the battle and run away from the scene.

“Instead of escaping from the scene, it was better to present yourself for arrest as you not only disappointed your workers but also earned a bad name for the Pakhtun nation,” he said and added that the chief minister had put all the blame on the Punjab and Islamabad police while at the same time saluted to Pak Army in his speech on the assembly floor.

“You are playing a double game and you cannot deceive all the people all the time,” the PPP MPA said and added that he himself would stand for his release had the chief minister offered dignified arrest instead of leaving the party workers in the lurch.

Ahmad Karim Kundi said the opposition parties had agreed to cooperate with the provincial government in its stand for the sanctity of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa House for which an 11-member parliamentary committee was formed to investigate the alleged raid and ransacking. The MPA asked the speaker Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly to convene an in-camera meeting on the deteriorating law and order in the province, particularly in southern districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where the provincial government had mostly lost its writ.

Also, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly witnessed a scuffle among the guests of two MPAs from North Waziristan on the assembly premises when the session was adjourned for prayer break in the evening. The assembly staff and police arrested three people who were believed to be guests of PTI-Parliamentarian MPA Iqbal Wazir from North Waziristan.

The scuffle took place among the guests of Iqbal Wazir and close relatives of PTI MPA and Special Assistant to Chief Minister Nek Mohammad Khan from North Waziristan, who had exchanged harsh words during the assembly session last Monday. The session was adjourned till Monday afternoon (October 14).