The chief executive officer (CEO) of a non-profit blood bank was “illegally detained” by police after an exchange of words with the district coordination officer (DCO) in Faisalabad on Friday.
Ali Zeb Foundation (AZF) CEO Shahid Zaidi told The Express Tribune that Civil Lines police “humiliated, abused and detained” him following his refusal to shift the organisation’s thalassaemia centre to General Hospital in Ghulam Muhammadabad from the Red Crescent Hospital.
He said DCO Noorul Amin Mengal had called him to his office on Friday and “ordered him to immediately vacate the centre.”
Zaidi said he told the DCO that hundreds of children being treated at the centre would suffer if it was shifted immediately.
“I requested the DCO to reconsider… he took my advice as an insult and lost his temper.” Zaidi said Mengal “immediately asked his staff to vacate the thalassaemia centre and called the police.”
He said the police released him after his colleagues contacted the Minister of State for Water and Power Chaudhary Abid Sher Ali, and District Bar Association (DBA) President Chaudhry Tanveerur Rehman.
Zaidi alleged that police had humiliated him and told him that he was being “taught a lesson for not obeying the DCO’s orders.”
He said AZF provided blood to government and private hospitals in addition to providing treatment to children suffering from thalassaemia, haemophilia and blood cancer.
DCO Noorul Amin Mengal told The Express Tribune that police had arrested Zaidi for resisting official business.
“I called the police because he [Shahid Zaidi] was rude… I could’ve “sorted him out” but I am an admirer of his organisation’s work,” he said.
The DCO said,“He came to my office today [Saturday] to apologise but I refused to meet him.”
“Ali Zeb Foundation is an NGO, not a government department… the former DCO allowed it to operate from a room at Red Crescent Hospital but it encroached on other areas… it also took over the nursing hospital at Red Crescent Hospital,” he said.
Mengal said Red Crescent Hospital was primarily a maternity hospital and the AZF administration was “creating problems… on the pretext of blood donation.”
“We are setting up a state-of-the-art building for AZF at General Hospital, Ghulam Muhammadabad, at an estimated cost of Rs40 million… but the AZF administration is not cooperating with the local administration,” the DCO said.
Civil Lines Station House Officer (SHO) Afzal Cheema said Zaidi was arrested on the DCO’s orders.
“He was released after police received orders from the DCO’s office… no case was registered against him,” he said.
“We were asked by the DCO to obtain an undertaking of good behavior from him.”
The AZF CEO told The Express Tribune “More than 3,500 children registered with the Ali Zeb Foundation are provided blood every fortnight by the organisation… We keep more than 400 blood bags at all times for emergency situations.”
He said the Ali Zeb Foundation needed to operate from a place that was easily accessible in Faisalabad. “Red Crescent Hospital is close to district headquarters hospital (DHQ, Allied Hospital, Faisalabad, the General Bus Stand, the Railway Station, Main GTS Chowk and downtown areas,” he said.
He said former District Coordination Officer Naseem Sadiq had provided space to Ali Zeb Foundation at Red Crescent Hospital three years ago.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 2nd, 2014.