Lahore - Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah denied on Saturday that more than 200 children had been sexually abused in Kasur district. In fact, he claimed in a TV interview on Saturday evening, it was a land dispute between two parties one of which wrongly projected it as a case of sexual abuse.
However, he did not give any details of the land dispute. The minister claimed that only seven cases of sexual abuse were registered in the Kasur district over the past many years and the accused involved had been arrested. Some accused got bails and were released after settlement between the parties, he said.
“If there was no situation like the one being projected by the media (and denied by you) what was it that the chief minister had taken notice of,” he was asked.
The law minister said after the media reports of the sexual harassment cases the chief minister set up a committee which had given its report. The inquiry report, he said, denied what was being claimed by the media. “This is not a big scandal”.
Kasur DPO Rai Bahadur went a step ahead and said the victims and the accused mentioned in the sexual harassment cases were relatives. He said in a TV interview that there was no political interference in these cases at all. There was no interference in the past and there would be none in the future, he asserted. He claimed that police had not stopped anyone from protesting.
About deployment of police a few days ago, he said, the step had been taken to avert clash between the two parties.
Relatives of the victims said in their interviews that the DPO was lying. They said the DPO did not get the accused arrested despite requests.
Also, they claimed the accused were threatening them because of protests.
MNA Sheikh Wasim said he would fight the case of “brothers of my constituency” at all fora. He said in case he was proved to have played a negative role in the sexual abuse scandal, he would quit politics.
MPA Malik Ahmed Saeed, who is also accused of protecting the accused, called for due punishment to all those involved.
“My sympathies are with the victims. I will extend them full assistance. I am not with the accused”. Replying to a question, he said he would quit politics if his involvement in cases was established.