Daily Times

A judicial magistrate on Saturday remanded Balochistan legislator Majeed Khan Achakzai to police custody for five days.

A traffic sergeant, Haji Attaullah, was run over and killed near Quetta’s GPO Chowk earlier this week when a vehicle allegedly belonging to the legislator ran him over.

The incident had come to light when footage of the legislator’s vehicle ramming into the traffic officer began circulating on social media on Friday. Police had arrested Achakzai from his residence in the Satellite Town area of Quetta Friday night following a campaign on social media mounting pressure on the government to arrest him.

Police produced Achakzai, who belongs to the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), before a judicial magistrate on Saturday, who remanded the accused to police custody for five days. Before he was remanded, Achakzai had confessed to his involvement in the accident and claimed to have agreed to compensate the family members of the slain traffic policeman, Deputy Inspector General of Police Razzaq Cheema said. “The law will take its course if the legislator fails to convince the family,” Cheema added.

Achakzai, an elected MPA from the PB-13 Killa Abdullah district, condemned “certain elements” who he claimed
had declared him a criminal prior to a trial in court.

Published in Daily Times, June 25th, 2017.