GUJRAT: Former Punjab education minister Mian Imran Masood along with his proposer and seconder was briefly detained by some plain-clothesmen to stop him from entering the office of returning officer for scrutiny here on Thursday.
Mr Masood told Dawn that some men wearing face masks had bundled him into a small car and later dropped him along GT Road near a famous international brand`s coffee shop.
He alleged that three others, who were accompanying him for scrutiny including his nephew Zorain Masood (son of former Gujrat tehsil nazim Haroon Masood), his personal secretary Hamid Warraich and a friend, Abdullah Karamat, had also been detained by the same officials who had taken them away in a double cabin vehicle.
He said he had filed his two nomination papers from PP-31 (Gujrat city) as an independent candidate whereas his elder brother Hraoon Masood and son Hashim Masood had also submitted their papers as his covering candidates.
`We all three candidates from the family reached at the vicinity of RO office together but the security staff stopped our vehicles at the startof the street [leading to the RO office] and allowed me, my proposer, seconder and lawyers to go on foot whereas Haroonand Hashimwere stopped at the security barrier,` he said and added that as soon as they reached in front of RO office, some men intercepted them and took them away from the place in two vehicles.
Mr Masood had so far contested from Gujrat city`s PA seats for at least seven times (1990 to 2013) and had become the MPA for four consecutive times (1990 to 2002) and lost three straight elections as PML-Q nominee to PML-N`s Haji Nasir Mahmood and his nephew Imran Zafar (2008, 2010 by-polls and 2013). In 2018, he had withdrawn the nomination papers in favour of PTI`s Saleem Sarwar Jaura as a result of seat adjustment.
Imran Masood said the matter of `kidnapping` of his proposer and seconder had been brought into the notice of the district election commissioner and a formal application would also be filed with the district returning officer.
