19 members of staff at a fast-food restaurant in Pakistan have been arrested after allegedly refusing to give free food to a group of police officers. The controversy has sparked debate in the country about corruption and privilege.
Staff at the Johnny & Jugnu fast food joint in Lahore were arrested and held in detention overnight. Johnny & Jugnu is a famous chain restaurant in Pakistan.
The burger chain said that this was not the first time such a thing had happened, they said in a statement:
"This is not the first time something like this has happened... at our restaurant."
They went on to say:
"Upon rejecting their request for free burgers, which has become a common practice for them, the police officers threatened our managers and left, only to return the next day to further harass and pressurise our teams... with baseless arguments. Some police officers came to our... outlet and took our manager into custody, without giving any reason whatsoever. Then they emptied out our entire branch, taking all of our kitchen crew, including the rest of the managers".
The staff has now been released without charge and nine police officers involved in the arrests have been suspended pending further investigations.
Senior provincial police official Inam Ghani told reporters:
"No one is allowed to take the law into his own hands. Injustice will not be tolerated. All of them will be punished."
The workers have since said that they were harassed and pushed around by police following their arrest.
Corruption in major institutions is a huge issue in Pakistan and billions of dollars are spent in bribes every year. Corruption is known to undermine economic growth and the faith citizens have in the police and wider institutions.
On taking office, Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan vowed to crack down on what he said were 'local political cronies' who were running the police in the Lahore region.
[h/t: BBC]
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