THE Punjab Cabinet members are on the rampage. Their crimes range from rape to smuggling and subjecting the government functionaries to torture. The latest is the case of Revenue Minister Haji Muhammad Ishaq using strong-arm tactics to get one of his workers freed from the Gojra City Police Station, who was taken into custody for resorting to aerial firing at the inauguration of a newly constructed road in the area. Two different cases were later registered against the minister and his 24 accomplices on the charges of publicly displaying weapons, attacking the SHO and injuring the driver of a police van. This was the first reported incident of the involvement of a Punjab PPP minister in any crime. The other two, a minister and an adviser belonged to the PML(N). Strangely enough, Senior Minister Raja Riaz threw his weight behind the fellow cabinet member saying there was nothing wrong with using licensed weapons for aerial firing to celebrate certain occasions. Coming as it does, the statement smacks of sheer ignorance on the part of the senior minister about the ban on the display of arms. Perhaps he will find it difficult to defend Haji Ishaq for slapping the SHO and letting his workers attack the police station. Law Minister Rana Sanaullah was right in that the PPP leadership should have taken action against the accused before he could be booked for commission of crime. There would be few takers for the Revenue Minister's view that he believed in the politics of decency and always had a strong aversion to gun running and kalshnikove culture. The matter needs to be properly investigated and those found guilty should be brought to justice regardless of their status. The usual practice of letting the influential off the hook by hushing up cases against them would only strengthen the public perception that when it comes to the application of law, certain sections of society are deemed to be exempt.