Arrest, handcuffing of Irfan Siddiqui: PM, NA speaker take notice

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly (NA) Speaker Asad Qaiser has summoned Interior Minister Brig (retd) Ijaz Shah and district administration on Monday morning in connection with the arrest and handcuffing of renowned columnist and educationist Irfan Siddiqui. 

Earlier, the NA speaker had taken strong notice of the arrest and handcuffing of Irfan Siddiqui and summoned the Inspector General (IG) Islamabad Police to Parliament House along with report on the matter on Monday.

Asad Qaiser made a telephonic contact with minister for interior and expressed his concern on the said arrest. Expressing his concern, the speaker said that arrest and handcuffing of Irfan Siddiqui on mere alleged violation of tenancy law warrants should be thoroughly probed. The NA Speaker said that Irfan Siddiqui is a seasoned columnist and a renowned educationist whose arrest has raised concerns in the journalistic community and academia.

He said that the present government believes in freedom of expression and upholds the independence of media. He reiterated that the rights as guaranteed under the Constitution would not be compromised.

Meanwhile, about the arrest of journalist Irfan Siddiqui, Adviser to Prime Minister on Accountability Shahzad Akbar said that prime minister had taken serious notice of the matter why he was presented in handcuff before a court. He added an inquiry was under way in this connection.

Later, speaking in Geo News programme ‘Naya Pakistan’, Irfan Siddiqui explained how he was arrested by the law-enforcers from his house in the middle of night on Friday night.

He said he was busy in study at his home Friday night when he heard the doorbell ring at about 11:30pm or 12 midnight and went to the main gate to see who was there. “To my astonishment, 11 or 12 police vans filled with dozens of policemen, were standing outside my house. Some were in uniform of different colours and others in civvies. They told me they were there to take him to the police station,” Siddiqui told the anchorperson.

He said he asked them for the arrest warrants, but they were not ready to listen to anything. “I was in sleeping dress, holding a ballpoint in my hand and wearing a chappal. They didn’t allow me to go inside my home and almost bundled me into a van and took me to a nearby police station,” the senior columnist said.

Siddiqui was told at the police station that he was arrested for violation of the tenancy act and for not informing the police station concerned about renting out his house. “I told the police it was not my house, but my son’s and only four days ago, on 20th of July, the house was rented out and on July 23, the tenant had shifted his family to the house.” Siddiqui said.

He said it was very painful for his family and himself that the police treated him like a terrorist and forcibly took him to the police station. “When my daughter came out to know about the situation, she was shoved and pushed away,” he regretted.

Irfan Siddiqui said the most important question in all the episode was ‘why he was treated like a terrorist over such a petty issue’. He said if the interior minister distanced himself from all the injustice meted out to him, he must investigate the matter and bring the facts before the public. To the government authorities’ claim that the PML-N staged all the drama, he wondered how come the party had become so powerful that it managed to send over a dozen police vans to get him arrested. He regretted the police act of presenting him in the court handcuffed and the magistrate not providing him relief and instead sending him to Adiala Jail, though he told her that he had always been serving the country through his pen. He said he was lodged in infamous “Kasuri Chakki” cell, along with six hardened criminals. He demanded the government investigate the matter and punish those who did all this to him. About signature forgery in signing the tenancy deed, Siddiqui said it was not the main issue, and even it was not mentioned in the FIR, registered against him. He said his son keeps visiting his house, and he (son) himself had signed the tenancy agreement.

He said the person who rented his son’s house had brought billions of rupees investment to his country from Dubai and had shifted his family here only three days ago. After this incident, his family is not ready to stay even a single day in Pakistan, Siddiqui regretted.