LAHORE – Heads of the ISI and Military Intelligence have asked the Punjab Police chief to quash an FIR registered against them at a local police station, stating that the allegations made therein are completely baseless.
However, the Inspector General Police has expressed his inability to oblige them. He has told the spymasters that a case one registered cannot be discharged unless the charge is proved wrong as a result of the investigations.
The two officials are accused of kidnapping a Hizbut Tahrir leader Naveed Butt. The IGP said that the FIR would not be quashed unless the ‘abductee’ was recovered.  This is the first time in country’s history that a case has been registered against the heads of intelligence agencies.
A case (566/12) under Section 365 (kidnapping) was registered against the three-star Lieutenant-General Zaheerul Islam, Director-General of the Inter-Services-Intelligence (ISI), Director General Military Intelligence two-star Major-General Naushad Ahmed Kayani and 12 other unidentified men.
According to the FIR, the complainant and also lawyer by profession namely Saadia Rahat Butt submitted an application with the Liaquatabad Police Station, Model Town Lahore and alleged that the ISI and MI chiefs abducted her husband Naveed Butt, an electrical engineer by profession, on June 12th.
She claimed to have witnessed some 12 to 15 men, who arrived and rounded up her husband outside his home and openly announced their linkage with the supreme intelligence agencies.
“My husband has been abducted on the behest of DG ISI and DG MI,” she claimed in her application.
Subsequently, the two powerful Army officers were booked and consequently the then SP (Operations) Athar Waheed was made Officer on Special Duty (OSD) by the Inspector General. “Frankly speaking, the SP was severely admonished by the police department and the Punjab government to hush up the matter and was made OSD,” a senior police officer said, adding, the political bigwigs are behind the case and intend to ‘rescue’ Naveed Butt.
On Tuesday, the CCPO Lahore, the Provincial Law Minister, Law Sectary and Secretary Prosecution and other senior officers and officials met and discussed the issue in detail.
“Teams have been constituted to probe into the matter and we are investigating the case but, so far, there is no positive development,” CCPO Lahore Aslam Tareen told this reporter. DPR to IGP, however, denied of receiving instructions from the intelligence chiefs.  An insider told TheNation that the big guns of the police departments have given an assurance to the intelligence chiefs that their names will be deleted from the FIR at an appropriate time.
Earlier, the complainant woman had approached Iqbal Hameed-ur-Rehman, Chief Justice Islamabad High Court, who had ordered the local police to recover Naveed Butt at any cost. Later, the case was referred to Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, who gave 15-day time to police asking the same to produce Naveed Butt within due course of time.