PUNJAB Jails Minister Ch Abdul Ghafoor is at it again. He has chosen neither the Lahore Airport Customs staff nor an Opposition lady MPA, but his own staff this time, on the say-so of the mother and sister of an under-trial prisoner, who complained their son and brother, in on drug-dealing charges, was being tortured and they were being pressed for bribes. The Minister visited the jail where the suspect was being held, the Kot Lakhpat Jail in Lahore, and suspended two members of the jail staff after subjecting them to his peculiar form of justice, which involved beating them. But they were restored by the Chief Ministers Secretariat after an enquiry by the DIG Prisons, the ranking officer in the department, found that there was no evidence against them. This does not seem merely to be a remnant of the VIP culture which the Chief Minister wishes to abolish, and which was blamed for the incident with the Customs officials, but it seems that there is a Punjab minister with a problem. Though Ch Ghafoors electors have every right to elect him even though his tendency to fly off the handle is over-pronounced, that is not a good enough reason to include him in the Punjab Cabinet which, while a very worthy body, cannot offer him the help he needs. This latest incident is clearly an internal matter, even if the airport incident involved federal officials, and even if the lady MPA belonged to the wrong party and had assaulted the CM verbally. Admittedly, the prisons staff is notoriously corrupt, but the minister in charge of them should be prepared to fight corruption in the department with legal means, not his fists. Ch Ghafoor may not see it, but his action on behalf of someone affected by his department, at the complaint of female relatives, is not just improper, but embarrassing to the government as a whole. Surely Mian Shahbaz can find a replacement among the many PML(N) MPAs aspiring to a ministry.