Five days after his insulting remarks about the motorway gang-rape victim and the resultant protests across the country with people calling for immediate removal, Lahore CCPO Umer Sheikh on Monday opted for an apology, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

In this connection, he expressed these views while talking to media persons but only after the Lahore High Court (LHC) ordered him to appear in person after it declared a petition maintainable, which sought his immediate removal.

As the LHC issued the directives, the CCPO reached the Governor’s House and met with Chaudhry Sarwar. Later, he tendered an apology to the gang-rape victim and all the segments of society who were offended by his statement.

Earlier in the day, the LHC directed him to appear in person at 1pm on Monday as it accepted for hearing a petition, seeking his removal over his statement against the motorway gang-rape victim. The move came as the chief justice overruled the objections raised by the registrar’s office.

The court set aside the objection regarding the maintainability of the petition calling for the CCPO’s removal after rejecting the additional advocate general’s request to declare it unmaintainable.

He argued that Sheikh was posted as per law as transfers and posting was a right of the government, adding that the petitioner wasn’t an affected party.

Sheikh’s comments about the motorway gang-rape have got attention both in national and international media as he had blamed her for the horrific incident, saying that she shouldn’t have travelled without a male family member during the night.

He also suggested that the woman thought it was France where she could move freely any time of the day or night without any safety concerns.