A Sonia Naz Update - 26th September

The reports of the two inquiries into Sonia Naz’s allegations have been submitted. Your blogger now provides a brief summary:

The Judicial Inquiry

• Sessions Judge Abdul Waheed Khan headed this inquiry on the instructions of Chief Minister Pervez Elahi.
• Sonia Naz refused to appear before the inquiry as she doubted its impartiality.
• According to

news reports the inquiry continued for eight days and the judge recorded statements of 22 witnesses including policemen and Excise and Taxation Dept. officials from Faisalabad.

The judge then submitted his report to the Punjab government which then instituted a case of illegal confinement against Police Superintendent Khalid Abdullah.

Shortly afterwards Khalid Abdullah obtained pre-arrest bail from a court.

It’s worth mentioning that the charge of ‘illegal confinement’ registered against SP Khalid Abdullah is comparatively mild.

Your blogger can quite confidently put forward that at any rural police station there would be at least two or three people illegally confined at any given time. That is the customary way in which the police extort money from the public. Consequently, ‘illegal confinement’ is a common charge against police officers and the punishment imposed is far from draconian.


The Police Inquiry.

• Punjab IGP appointed DIG Zafar Ahmed Quresh and SP Saad Akhtar Bharwana to investigate and produce a report on their findings.

Reportedly the team examined 67 witnesses and was in constant touch with Sonia Naz whose charges and witnesses were very comprehensively and minutely examined by it.

In short the inquiry found SP Khalid Abdullah to be a complete and utter scumbag.

Ayaz Amir produced a good synopsis of the police inquiry report in last Sunday’s Dawn. In his piece he mentions the following salient details of the report's findings:

• Khalid Abdullah and his policemen kept Sonia Naz’s husband (and others) in illegal custody with a view to extorting large amounts of money.
• A large amount was paid to SP Khalid Abdullah.
• There was enough circumstantial evidence “for registration of an FIR” on the charge of rape.
• The state of affairs of senior police officers in Faisalabad was scandalous as charges and counter –charges of corruption, extortion and illegal ‘land grabbing cases’ were exchanged between Superintendent Abdullah and his superior officer, the DIG.

Well there you have it.

If you needed proof of the complete criminalisation of the police force you need not look further. Unfortunately Khalid Abdullah, vile though he may be, is only the tip of a diseased iceberg.

Now we wait to see what happens next. The police inquiry report is with the Inspector General of Police of the Punjab, who will pass it on to his chief minister. Undoubtedly, Pervez Elahi - who is normally loathed to reprimand police officers because of his political dependency upon them - will be forced to act upon the report.

The matter is in the public domain and commonsense would dictate that the government cannot afford another cover up. But then commonsense is a rare commodity in our governmental circles these days.

Related Sonia Naz Blogs
The Glasshouse –I Was Raped on Police Officer’s Orders (Part I)
The Glasshouse - Sonia Naz: Rape Case (Part II) - The Background
The Glasshouse - Sonia Naz: Rape Case (Part III) - Subsequent Events
The Glasshouse - Sonia Naz - Rape Case (Part IV) – Latest Update
The Glasshouse - Sonia Naz - Rape Case (Part V) – November Update
The Glasshouse - Sonia Naz : A Victim of Grubby Punjab Politics?

The Glasshouse - Sonia Naz – The Unfolding Tragedy – April 2005

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