Rule of law

By Shakeel Anjum

ISLAMABAD: The day when the government showed yet another sign of contempt for the ruling of the apex court, the son of the Chief Justice (CJ) of Pakistan and the Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) set a commendable precedent for the supremacy of law.

In a country where the mighty and powerful consider them above the law, the son of the Chief Justice of Pakistan encouraged the Islamabad Traffic Police to issue a ticket to an official car in use of the family of honourable Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry for overspeeding.

The official car, driven by the official driver with Dr Arsalan Iftikhar in it, was stopped at the Margalla Road for overspeeding on Thursday, impounded for want of relevant documents and later released but only after the required documents were provided and a traffic violation ticket was issued.

Police sources said that the CJ's son fully cooperated with the police for the violation committed by the driver and also encouraged the traffic cops to impound the car as required by law. These sources said that Dr Arsalan had left the car and boarded another one to show his respect for the rule of law.Talking to The News Dr Arsalan confirmed the incident and said that when the police stopped the car for over-speeding and asked the official driver that he had violated the law, he (Arsalan) encouraged the police to proceed as per law of the land.

The ITP sources told The News that a speeding car bearing registration number AKA-706, was checked and intercepted at Margalla Road by the ITP as the speed gun showed that the car was being driven at a speed of 87 km/hour against the speed limit of 70 km/hour.

The ITP officers demanded relevant documents from the driver Zafar Iqbal but he was not carrying the same. Consequently, the ITP officers decided to impound the car although they knew that it was the official car of the Chief Justice of Pakistan.

The car was impounded at Kohsar Police Station and the driver was allowed to fetch the documents. The car was later released after the police inspected the documents. Inspector General of the Islamabad Police Syed Kaleem Imam told this correspondent, "We followed Supreme Court of Pakistan to establish and implement rule of law equally for all," adding that application of law without discrimination was the prime duty of police. He said that the car was impounded under section 160-A, sub section-I because the driver was not carrying relevant documents with him. Kaleem Imam said that the act of ITP was a message for police service and other departments that the equal implementation of law could change the destiny of the nation.

It is worth mentioning that it is almost a routine that big wigs here display harsh attitude when the ITP intercept them for traffic violation on different avenues of Islamabad. Parliamentarian and bureaucrats react strongly against the police and often lodge complaints against the officials who dare to intercept their vehicles. Recently, a parliamentarian, lawmaker and a custodian and protector of law threatened an ITP officer when he intercepted his vehicle for traffic violation that he would move privilege motion against the Islamabad Police if he dared to give him fine ticket.