LAHORE: Punjab caretaker chief minister Mohsin Naqvi took notice of arrest and ‘mistreatment’ of young snooker player Ahsan Ramzan by the Lahore police and issued directions for an impartial inquiry into the incident.

He was arrested by the Green Town police late on Wednesday from a local snooker club where he was doing practice.

The IG police appointed the Saddar division SP to hold the inquiry and submit a report at the earliest.

Ahsan Ramzan had won laurels for Pakistan in March 2022 when he set a new record and became the 2nd youngest player after Yan Bingtao of China at world amateur snooker championship in the world.

He had also represented Pakistan at the 2022-World Games held in Birmingham, United Kingdom.

Recently, Ahsan Ramzan won U21 Asian Snooker Championship in 2023 by defeating Iran’s Milad Pourali Darehchi 5-2 in the final.

An official said the Lahore police brought about embarrassment when they arrested him from the snooker club despite the fact that his fellows had introduced him as world champion.

He said the raiding team ignored the repeated requests of the fellows of Ahsan Ramzan, thrashed him publicly, bundled him into the van and took him to the police station.

The police officials were treating him as if they had arrested a ‘criminal’, the young men who witnessed the incident told the media persons.

They said the Green Town station house officer ordered the policemen to put Ahsan behind bars for not observing the 10pm club closure time.

However, the police released him an hour after the matter came to the limelight on social media and the CM took notice of the incident.

The witnesses said Ahsan used to visit the local snooker club for practice where many other players were getting tips from him to compete in the national and international championships.

They said he had been awarded Rs100,000 each by the then IG Punjab and the Lahore CCPO when he set the world record in 2022.

During a meeting with the IG police, Ahsan Ramzan had taken up the issue with him that the police were conducting raids at the snooker clubs at night, causing problems for them.

At that time, they said, the IG had directed the Lahore police not to harass the snooker players and let them practice to play for the country.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2023