PAT for neutral JIT for transparent investigation into fake cases against its workers

PAT Secretary General Khurram Nawaz Gandapur has written a letter to the Inspector General Police Punjab in which he has demanded the constitution of a neutral and bipartisan JIT for fair investigation into 42 cases registered against 1200 PAT workers in Punjab. He has maintained that our innocent workers are still being harassed in the fake cases registered on the complaint of police.

Khurram Nawaz Gandapur has apprised the IGP of the details of the cases in the letter. He informed that all of these cases were registered between June 23, 2014 and September 2014. He stated in the letter that these cases were registered in police stations of Rawalpindi, Ghakhar, Kamonki, Gojra, Bakhar, Sargodha, Mianwali, Khoshab, Okara, Depalur, Chiniot, Khanewal, Bahwalpur, Shor Kot, and Behra Interchange. He said that 11 cases were registered in Lahore, 1 in Rawalpindi, 1 in Behra interchange, 4 in Gujranwala, 6 in Bhakhar, 2 in Mianwali, 1 in Kushab, 2 in Depalpur, 2 in Chiniot, 4 in Khanewal, 1 in Okara, 2 in Bahawalpur, 1 in Hafizabad, 1 in Shorkot and 1 in Sardodha.

Khurram Nawaz Gandapur said that in over 90% of these cases, police raided the houses of workers sleeping during night and arrested them. They ransacked their homes, misbehaved with women and looted household stuff and to top it all, police registered cases against them. He said that the people of the whole country know that these cases were registered on the directions of the Punjab government and their purpose was to sabotage the peaceful long march. He said that by ending our sit-in in October 2014, we proved that we are peaceful people. He said that we had hoped that all of these baseless cases would be withdrawn after the conclusion of the sit-in but we are having to say it regrettably that the Punjab Police and the government have set up the worst example of vindictiveness. He asked the IGP to depute a fair and neutral JIT for review of all these cases.