December 20, 2023
ISLAMABAD – Former PTI leader Usman Dar’s mother on Tuesday accused PML-N stalwart Khawaja Asif and the police of raiding their Sialkot home and manhandling her.
Asif and the Sialkot police denied the allegations.
Earlier in the day, Usman shared a video of his mother on social media platform X in which she called on Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa to take notice of the alleged incident.
“It is my appeal … that I was asleep at home and yet again, Khawaja Asif orchestrated an attack on my house,” she said while pointing to a broken door frame, adding that the alleged attackers entered after trying to force their way in.
She said the attackers manhandled, adding that such tactics would not force her to “comply” and she would still submit her nomination for the February 8 general elections.
“It is my appeal to you [chief justice] that [take notice of] what is happening and ask these people if this is our Pakistan?” she said before challenging Asif to face her in the electoral battleground.
“You sent 20 policemen to my home at midnight after hearing about me submitting my [nomination] papers?”
Talking to the media, the former PTI leader said he had left politics but would never abandon his mother.
He also posted alleged voice recordings of his family from the incident and asked the chief justice and the “powerful quarters” who would answer for the “treatment meted out” to his family.
Responding to the allegation, Asif said he had never pursued vindictive politics and always waged political battles with his opponents.
“I fight with my opponents on principles and respect their elders and families.”
In a later post, he said he cursed the kind of politics for which he had to “sacrifice my family traditions and upbringing”.
Responding to Usman directly in another post, Asif said he should not be blamed if the former PTI leader did not want to contest polls.
“It is requested that respectable people should not use a great personality like mother in their political dramas. Protect their respect and sanctity, don’t use them for cheap politics,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sialkot District Police Officer (DPO) Muhammad Hasan Iqbal issued a video message saying that the police conducted a raid last night in line with legal requirements to arrest “absconding suspect Umar Dar” — Usman’s brother.
He said Umar was a suspect at large in five cases.
“When this raid was conducted, the women at home used very inappropriate language and concocted this story that the officers committed violence and misbehaved. There is no truth to all of these claims,” the DPO said.
He added that the police possessed evidence about Umar “talking against Pakistan and involved in vandalism and violence”.
“Will suspects at large take the support of women and remain away from the law’s jurisdiction? Can a suspect at large be present on social media and in contact with relatives?” the officer said.
He said the law authorised the state to arrest a fleeing suspect and that is why providing refuge to such an individual, helping them or aiding them in escaping police custody was a crime.
The Dar family’s complaints of police raids and mistreatment are not new. In August, he had said his house, factory and businesses in Sialkot were sealed and his family members, including women, were left stranded after ‘state highhandedness’
“The state has snatched away our right to live in our own country, declared proclaimed offender in fake cases and being treated as terrorists,” Dar had stated in a post.
He had posted a video message of his mother, wherein she appealed to the chief justice to dispense justice to her concerning the state highhandedness committed against her and her family members.
“Are we being punished that my sons were with Imran Khan and used to contest elections on the PTI tickets,” she had asked and made an impassioned appeal to the CJP to dispense justice to her.