PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to lodge a first information report (FIR) against the Islamabad police chief for “raiding” the provincial government’s residence during the PTI’s protest in Islamabad last month.
The decision was taken by the provincial cabinet in a session chaired by Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur to book Islamabad IGP Syed Ali Nasir Rizvi along with 600 police officials “under sections of terrorism, vandalism, and theft” for allegedly conducting a raid at KP House in the federal capital.
During the session, a report was presented before the cabinet members to highlight damages to the KP House during the police “raid”, amounting to more than Rs10 million, including several expensive items belonging to the KP chief minister and provincial lawmakers, sources told Geo News.
KP CM’s brother and a Member of the National Assembly (MNA), Faisal Amin Gandapur, told Geo News that they moved to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) to register an FIR against the Islamabad police chief.
He announced that the FIR would be based on opinions from the KP law secretary and legal experts, adding that the case would be filed against the Islamabad IGP at all costs.
Adviser to the Chief Minister on Information Barrister Mohammad Ali Saif and KP Minister for Public Health Engineering Pakhtoon Yar Khan have also confirmed the development to Geo News, pointing towards legal action against those who violated the law by raiding the KP House.
The provincial minister claimed the case would be filed against the federal capital’s top cop and others for “vandalism, terrorism, and theft”.
KP Advocate General Shah Faisal Uthmankhel further detailed that under Article 179, FIR would be filed in the jurisdiction of a crime scene, whereas, in some scenarios, cases were also filed outside the prescribed limits.
Speaking to Geo News, the lawyer claimed that some FIRs had been registered in KP of incidents that took place in a foreign country.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) firebrand politician and KP CM Gandapur had blamed the Islamabad police for “raiding” the KP House, a provincial government’s residence in the federal capital, during the party’s Islamabad protest which saw clashes between law enforcers and workers from the Imran Khan-founded party last month.
During the former ruling party’s protest, Gandapur went into self-imposed hiding and later resurfaced in the provincial assembly after a daylong disappearance and demanded the Centre to immediately remove the Islamabad IGP for raiding the KP House.
The KP chief executive said that he remained hidden on the rooftop of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa House building for about four hours before exiting the building by jumping the wall in the darkness.
Gandapur claimed that he had witnessed ransacking, beating of provincial police personnel and other staff in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa House at the hands of Rangers who “had not only violated the sanctity of the Pakhtunkhwa House but also insulted the entire Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which was an integral part of the federation of Pakistan”.
