Speaking in the National Assembly session, the PML-N president criticised the government for its failure to deploy police on the motorway. He said the Punjab Police chief had written to the government in July and asked for more security at the motorway, but there was no response from the government.
“Just like this government has completely failed on every front since the past two-and-a-half years, its failure in upholding the law and order is written on the wall,” he said.
During his speech, the NA opposition leader also questioned the comments made by Lahore CCPO Umar Sheikh over the incident. “The entire world has never witnessed such a shameful incident where a police officer was questioning as to why the woman [who was raped] was taking a particular route and not another,” said Shehbaz.
He went on to question the appointment of 'notorious' police officer Umar Sheikh as the Lahore police chief.
Rape on motorway:
A woman was allegedly raped by two men at gunpoint in front of her children after her car ran out of gas near Gujjarpura, Lahore.
Police said the woman, a resident of Gujranwala, was returning to the city from Lahore on Tuesday night when her car ran out of petrol.
Geo News reported that the woman called her husband, who advised her to call Motorway Police for help until he got there. However, the Motorway Police operator excused from helping the woman, saying the emergency beat had not been assigned to anyone.
Protests against incident:
Human rights activists and people from civil society in major cities of Pakistan, including Karachi held demonstrations against the incident. People demanded of the government to take measures in order to control such brutal and barbaric elements from the society.
Aurat March Lahore along with other progressive outfits also arranged a protest at Lahore’s Liberty Chowk. Their demands included structural reform of police that focuses on accountability and transparency to the most vulnerable members of the community, immediate measures to improve the safety of public spaces without employing paternalistic measures such as curfews, and an introduction of victim and witness protection programmes.
As she was left to her own devices on the deserted road, two armed men approached the vehicle and smashed its windows. They then took the woman and her children out of the car and took them into a nearby field after cutting the fence along the road to rape her. The report said the woman was also deprived of Rs100,000, jewelry, and ATM cards.