In the face of criticism from the Supreme Court and political spheres, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday commended the "professional" performance of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police referencing the headway made in the cases of Mashal Khan's lynching and the murder of a minor girl in Mardan.
Almost a week earlier, the chief justice had criticised KP police, saying: “We had heard that the KP police have become very efficient in the province, but [it seems] your incapability has made you dependent on others that is why so much time is being consumed [in resolving the Mardan rape and murder case]."
The chief justice had also criticised the KP government for not having a functioning forensics laboratory in the province, which was said to have resulted in needless delays to the case's progress.
The CJ had additionally taken notice of the murder of a third-year medical student Asma who was killed in front of her house in Kohat for rejecting a marriage proposal. The suspect in the case had fled to Saudi Arabia.
But the PTI chief, brushing aside the criticism, said on Wednesday that both the Mashal and the Mardan cases "have shown how a professional, model police force goes about its work efficiently and delivers solid results, despite media & political criticism".
"After court verdict on Mashal case, KP police has once again shown it's professionalism by bringing a murderous mob under the ambit of the law," Khan wrote on Twitter. He noted that this was the first time in Pakistan that police has successfully brought the members of a mob to justice.
An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) earlier in the day had handed death sentence to one convict and life imprisonment to five in Mashal Khan lynching case. Twenty-six others were acquitted for want of evidence. Also today, a 15-year-old second cousin of the four-year-old Mardan girl found dead in a field was arrested by KP police for his suspected involvement in the alleged rape and murder.
KP police is a role model for other provinces to emulate, the PTI chief insisted.
Khan also eulogised KP police for apprehending the suspect in the Mardan child's murder case "with just one spot of blood found [and] no other evidence".
"KP police worked professionally to catch [the] culprit showing they have developed advanced forensic detection capability as well," he said.
Taking a jab at Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who had praised his provincial authorities for arresting the suspected culprit in Zainab murder case in a publicised press conference, the PTI chief said the KP chief minister had not done any "political gloating".
"This is the difference between KP's professional police force & the highly politicised & criminalised police force[s] of Punjab & Sindh," he concluded.
