FAISALABAD: The district police have given 'clean-chit' to the Pakistan Muslim League-N MPA Rana Shoaib Idrees and told the Anti Terrorism Court judge that name of the lawmaker was ‘mistakenly’ mentioned in the case pertaining to attack on Khurrianwala police station.

Earlier, on Sept 2, police had declared the MPA guilty of attacking the police station and thrashing some policemen. An application submitted by the MPA for changing investigation officer for conducting a ‘biased probe’ had been rejected by police.

Know more: PML-N MPA joins probe after dilly-dallying

On Wednesday, the court sent the MPA to jail on judicial remand.

Sources told Dawn that prior to the MPA’s arrest the Punjab police Inspector General Mushtaq Sukhera had ordered Faisalabad police to ensure rule of law and put the culprits behind the bars. Following the orders, they said, the local police professionally investigated the matter.

Also read: Record of case against MPA ‘goes missing’

However, they said later the stance was changed and the authorities decided to provide relief to the ruling party lawmaker because of political pressure.

The sources said following the ‘change of heart’ the local police first ‘raided’ the house of a Sub-Inspector, Riasat, in Farooq Abad, who was allegedly tortured by the MPA and his henchmen, and was left injured with three broken teeth. However, the SI was not home.

Madina Town SP Nasir Sial claimed it was not a ‘raid’. He said the police just went to the SI’s house to ask him to join the investigation as his cell phone was switched off.

Failing to find SI Riasat, the police also tried to contact a senior officer involved in the case investigation and Khurrianwala DSP Mian Akmal but failed, the sources said.

They said the Regional Investigation Branch (RIB) had summoned the policemen attached with the case on Tuesday last so that they could be ‘convinced’ to change their statements so that the MPA could be given a clean-chit.

The sources said the senior police officer was asked to change his version following the written statement of the MPA that he (Mr Shoaib) had reached the police station following the officer’s phone calls. But the officer had termed the MPA’s statements baseless.

The sources said the senior officer categorically refused to withdraw his statement, informing his bosses that the MPA was directly involved in the attack and it would not be fair to let him go off the hook because of political pressure.

They said the officer told his high–ups he would prefer to work as an officer on special duty (OSD) instead of going against the merit.

The DSP concerned also refused to favour the the MPA. He said the MPA was in his office when the mob attacked the police station and tortured on-duty policemen, the sources said. They said the refusal of the officers created problems for the police bosses who contacted Khurrianwala SHO Khalid Pervez, complainant in the case registered against the MPA and asked him to change his statement.

Mr Pervez was then admitted to the Faisalabad Institute of Cardiology with some cardiac issue when police got his revised statement, the sources said.

The SHO confirmed to Dawn that he had given statement that the ‘political personality’ mentioned in the FIR of the case was not Mr Shoaib but the MPA’s uncle Rana Zikarya, who was already a nominated suspect.

The police registered a case on July 19 without mentioning the MPA’s name. In the FIR it was mentioned that a mob led by a ‘political personality’ attacked the police station and thrashed the policemen.

The MPA was named in the case next day when the then City Police Officer Dr Haider Ashraf was informed by his three SPs and the SHO concerned that Mr Shoaib was involved in the attack.

Punjab police spokesperson Nabeela Ghazanfar told Dawn that IG Sukhera had not asked anyone to give a clean-chit to the MPA. She said the MPA had been arrested when court had cancelled his bail and the IGP had asked the police officers for “a fair investigation”.

To a query that what action would be taken against the policemen who changed their statement, she claimed “justice would be ensured”.

Published in Dawn, September 11th , 2014