Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Islamabad police are not registering murder and illegal occupation complaints with which the family of renowned film producer late Ghulam Ahmed Gul approached them about a week ago.

Gul’s daughter Farida Haroon, 64, tells Daily Times that she has been trying for a week to register FIRs against a tenant, identified as Rafiq Shah, who has allegedly illegally occupied some shops at a commercial building owned by the family on the IJP Road.

She says the illegal occupation happened a few days after the death of her brother Fayyaz Ahmed Gul, who is the owner of the building, in December. “I suspect that my brother was given poison that led to his sudden death a few weeks ago,” she says.

Haroon complains that the police are not cooperating with the family. So much so that an official at the Margala station, where she went to file an application for registration of a murder case, ‘advised’ her that matters pertaining to illegal occupation were best dealt by land grabbing gangs. “If your property is being illegally occupied in Islamabad, don’t go to the police. Hire another gang of land grabbers to get your possession back,” she quotes the police official as having said to her.

“I also met the Inspector General of Police in Islamabad [Sultan Azam Temuri] a weak ago. I must admit that he was very kind and courteous and directed his subordinates to take action, but it seems his subordinates are in cahoots with the land grabbers. Despite the IG’s orders, a week has passed, and no action has been taken so far,” she says.

“It’s a complete mess. Its lawlessness of the highest order. I am an American citizen and if I feel so powerless, anybody can tell how others are being treated,” she said.

She says that another plaza owned by Gul in New Iqbal Town area was earlier sealed by the police after two parties came up with claims that it had been rented out to him allegedly by Shah.

The family is now receiving threats to stay away from the properties. “This is happening right under the nose of Islamabad police. I had thought Islamabad would be different from other cities, but I was mistaken,” she said. On Thursday (yesterday), Haroon received a call from a man identifying himself as Rizwan and asking her to pay Rs40 million extortion if she wanted illegal occupation of shops to end.

She believes that Rizwan was an accomplice of Shah.

Regarding Fayyaz Gul’s death, she says that initially the family didn’t suspect any malice and thought that her brother died from a nature cause. With the illegal occupation of shops at his plaza just a few days later, she recollected memories of the days leading to Gul’s death. She suspects that Shah could have poisoned her brother since the latter ate at his place for three straight days before his death.

When approached, Margalla police station house officer (SHO) Ilyas Ahmed Maken said that the suspect had been asked to appear at the station and record their statement. Asked if the suspects failed to do that how would the police proceed, he said, “We will visit his house to record his statement.”

The SHO didn’t respond to a question about the time they would wait for the suspect to appear before making a move.

Despite repeated calls and text messages with reference to the case, Senior Superintendent Police (Operations) Islamabad Sajid Kiani remained unavailable for comment.

When this scribe approached Rafiq Shah, the main suspect, he denied allegations and said he was just a tenant at the plaza owned by late Fayyaz Gul and his family. However, some other tenants, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that they were under pressure to pay rents for the shop to Shah, instead of Gul’s family members. They said they believed that Shah was orchestrating the whole episode to pressure the family into giving up the ownership of the plaza.

Published in Daily Times, January 12^th 2017.