Punjab CM’s adviser booked for rape Wednesday,
June 03, 2009
LAHORE: Punjab MPA Munawar Ali Gill has been accused of raping a 35-year-old woman at a Gulberg hotel on Monday night.
A case, No 339/09, was registered against the accused at the Naseerabad police station under section 376 of the PPC on the complaint of victim Tahira Parveen on Tuesday. The MPA, elected from Sialkot, first sought reconciliation with the victim at the police station, asking her to forgive him.
However, when the rape victim asked the police for his medical checkup, Munawar escaped, and was still at large till the filing of the report. According to the FIR registered against MPA Munawar Ali Gill, an adviser to the Punjab chief minister, the complainant Tahira Parveen told the police that her sister had agricultural land measuring 17 kanals and 15 marlas in Pasroor, Sialkot. Two accused persons, Nazeer and Rafiq, who are allegedly close allies of Munawar, had occupied her sister’s land. She added that she had been receiving phone calls from phone numbers 0301-8459459, 0300-6183087 and 052-6442707 for the last one week. Munawar Ali, she added, during the phone calls asked her repeatedly to come to him and he would help retrieve her land.
The complainant, in her application, further alleged that on June 1, 2009 at around 8pm, Munawar Ali called her from a cell phone (number 0301-8459459). Munawar told her that he had come to Lahore and Nazir and Rafiq were also with him and that she should come to him so that the issue of land grabbing could be resolved. The MPA told her that he was staying at Room No 117 of Gulberg Palace Hotel.
Tahira told the police that she left her house along with her neighour Manzoor Ahmad. “As we reached Gulberg, we found Munawar along with his friend standing outside the hotel,” she said. The accused Munawar asked her to go with him to the hotel. In the meantime, her neighbour Manzoor received a call that his relative had died and he left.
She further said that she went to the room and asked about Nazir and Rafiq, but the MPA asked her to drink water and relax and said they would come soon.
Even after half an hour, the two did not reach the hotel and the MPA asked his friend Nasir to leave the room, as the former wanted to discuss some important issue with her. As Nasir left the room, the MPA allegedly locked the room at which the woman protested. But the accused MPA allegedly whipped out a pistol and kept it at her temple, asking her to keep quiet if she wanted to stay alive.
In the meantime, Tahira alleged, Munawar raped her. When she came out of the room she found Nasir standing outside who asked her to forgive Munawar. But she rushed to the police station.
The police took the victim to Lahore General Hospital for a medical checkup. The police, after interrogation registered a case against the MPA. SSP Operations Ch Shafiq Ahmad said raids are being conducted to arrest the accused MPA.
Talking to The News, Special Assistant to the CM, Zaib Jafar, regretted the incident. She added that there is nobody above the law and said if the charge is proved the person guilty of this crime should be penalised under the law.
Punjab CM’s adviser booked for rape
My comments: This is a shocking incident that demonstrates how those high up in power think that they can commit any heinous crime and hope to get away with it. The Punjab CM should completely disassociate himself from this man