HAFIZABAD City News

Tussle between Hafizabad DPO, local PML-N leaders
From Syed Muhammad Zamir
HAFIZABAD: Inclusion of names of some influential persons in the list of alleged qabza groups in Hafizabad by the district police officer (DPO) has annoyed local leadership of the ruling party, it is learnt.
The names of Rai Qamaruz Zaman, Naukar Hussain Dogar and Rai Yaqoob, who are reportedly blue-eyed boys of the Pakistan Muslim League-N local leadership, have been included in the said list.
PML-N’s former federal parliamentary secretary Ch Afzal Hussain Tarar and MNA Mian Shahid Hussain Bhatti told The News they met the DPO and told him that he had included names of wrong persons in the lists of qabza groups and touts. They made it clear to the police officer that Naukar Hussain and Rai Qamaruz Zaman were not members of any qabza group, they said.
Shahid Bhatti told this correspondent that Rai Qamar was a staunch supporter of the PML-N and he had obtained 17,000 votes as an independent candidate during the past elections. During the by-elections, he supported the PML-N and he was a people’s representative and, therefore, the police should not include his name in the list of qabza groups.
Qamaruz Zaman also addressed a press conference the other day. He alleged that DPO Shakir Hussain had nurtured personal grudge against him and the other PML-N workers.
Talking to The News, he said the DPO was harming his repute in the area and he would go to the court against him. He denied all charges of being part of any qabza group and demanded the Punjab chief minister transfer the DPO immediately.
Naukar Hussain Dogar and Rai Yaqoob told The News they belonged to respectable families and they were not members of any qabza group. They said they had to go to police stations many a time to help people get justice or help them resolve their issues, but they were not touts at all.
However, DPO Shakir Hussain refused to accept all these demands. Talking to The News, he rejected the allegations that he had any personal grudge against any one. He said lists of criminals and anti-social elements were prepared on the basis of information provided by the police sources as well as the intelligence agencies.
The DPO said an operation was under way against qabza groups, brothel houses, drug-pushers and anti-social elements, and the police would not succumb to any pressure in this regard. He said transfers of government employees were part of the service and his transfer could not bar him from action against criminals.
The DPO said he was holding open courts in various mosques of the district where complaints were being heard and action was being taken on-the-spot.
He said he would place complaints boxes in every locality to get firsthand information about people’s grievances.
Sources said a tussle between the DPO and the ruling party local leadership started a few months back when the former constituted the citizen police liaison committee (CPLC) in the city for cooperation with the police. Some activists of the PML-N also wanted their names included in the committee, but the DPO did not oblige them after receiving reports of their bad repute in the area from the intelligence agencies. Meanwhile, different organisations also took out a rally in favour of the DPO a few days back.