The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) on Tuesday said that officials of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and Sindh Rangers involved in the "Karachi incident" have been suspended for acting "overzealously".
In a statement, the military's media affairs wing said that the court of inquiry constituted on the orders of Chief of Army Staff Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa has been completed.
"The court of inquiry has established that on the night of Oct 18/Oct 19, officers from Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) and ISI sector Headquarters Karachi were considerably seized with the fall out of the desecration of Mazar-e-Quaid.
"They were under increasing public pressure to ensure prompt action as per the law. Assessing the response of police authorities against this developing yet volatile situation to be slow and wanting, in a charged environment, the concerned officers decided to act, rather overzealously," the ISPR statement said.
"They were indeed experienced enough to have acted more prudently and could have avoided creating an unwarranted situation that led to misunderstanding between the two state institutions.
"Based on the recommendations of the court of inquiry, it has been decided to remove the concerned officers from their current assignments for further departmental proceedings and disposal at GHQ," the statement added.
Last month, the ISPR said the Army chief had taken notice of and ordered an immediate inquiry into the "Karachi incident".
At the time, the ISPR did not specify which incident it was referring to. However, the statement came minutes after PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari called on Gen Bajwa and ISI Director General Faiz Hameed to investigate the circumstances surrounding the arrest of PML-N leader retired Capt Mohammad Safdar in Karachi.
On October 19, PML-N leader Safdar, who was staying at a hotel with his wife Maryam, was arrested for "violating the sanctity of the Quaid's mausoleum" a day after the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) had staged a rally in the city.
Following Safdar's arrest, a purported voice message by PML-N leader and former Sindh governor Muhammad Zubair was shared by a journalist in which Zubair alleged that the inspector general of police was kidnapped and forced to register the first information report against Maryam, her husband Safdar and 200 others for violating the sanctity of the Quaid's mausoleum.
In the audio clip circulating on Twitter, Zubair said that Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah confirmed to him that police was pressured into making the arrest. "When they (police) refused to do that, Rangers kidnapped [the IGP]," Zubair said.
Maryam had also alleged that the Sindh police chief was forcibly "taken to the sector commander's office and asked to sign on the arrest orders".
Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah had addressed a press conference later and said that a ministerial committee would investigate the mysterious ‘circumstances’ that led to the early morning raid on Maryam's hotel room and arrest of her husband, but defended the police action once an FIR had been lodged against him.
However, the presser had failed to convince the police hierarchy that was in low morale following the Oct 19 episode and had applied for leaves en masse. They later decided to defer their leaves after Gen Bajwa took notice of the incident and spoke to Bilawal over the phone.
0 Comments