Opinion Extra-judicial killing
Pakistans supreme court ordered an inquiry into the extra-judicial killing of 19-year-old Sarfraz Shah by the Rangers in Karachi last week .
Extra-judicial killing
Pakistans supreme court ordered an inquiry into the extra-judicial killing of 19-year-old Sarfraz Shah by the Rangers in Karachi last week . The News reported on June 13: The investigation team formed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan under the supervision of Deputy Inspector General West Zone Sultan Khwaja recorded statements in the Sarfraz Shah killing case at Boat Basin police station here on Sunday. On the orders of the Supreme Court,Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) has been included in the case against Rangers personnel involved. Daily Times added on June 14: The Supreme Courts order… will be implemented in letter and spirit,Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Maulvi Anwarul Haq said on Monday. The AGP said the federal government will not file a review petition against the Supreme Court order… He,however,said the concerned affected officers,if they wished,could file their review petitions against the courts orders in their personal capacity. The court ordered the transfers of the director-general of the Sindh police and the inspector-general of the Rangers.
Who investigates?
Daily Times reported on June 16 that journalists from all across Pakistan staged a protest in front of the Punjab Assembly in Lahore to demand a probe into Saleem Shahzads killing. The journalists rejected a government decision to put Federal Shariat Court Chief Justice Agha Rafiq in charge of the inquiry… calling instead for a commission under a Supreme Court judge. An offer by the federal government to constitute a judicial commission under a high court judge was also rejected. Dawn added on June 17 that human rights activist and Supreme Court Bar Association president,Asma Jehangir,petitioned the supreme court on behalf of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ). Taking up a petition requesting the setting up of a judicial commission to investigate the killing of journalist Saleem Shahzad,the Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to the federal secretaries for law,interior and information with directions to submit their responses before the court by June 20… Jehangirs petition stated that Shahzads mobile phone records spanning over 15 days had been wiped out. She also suggested the court summon the ISI chief and added that intelligence agencies were capable of wiping out telephone records.
The report added that Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry objected to the way the federal government appointed supreme court judge Justice Saqib Nisar as the head of the commission after the journalists insistence. A report in The Express Tribune on June 17 elaborated: The government appears to not only have missed the nail but also created another controversy for itself. Its nominee to head a commission to probe journalist Saleem Shahzads murder,Supreme Court judge Mian Saqib Nisar,refused to lead investigations shortly after his nomination on Thursday.
Nisar said he would not undertake the job because Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani did not consult Chaudhry prior to nominating him,in violation of established judicial norms. Asma Jahangir was reported to have criticised the way the government nominated Justice Nisar and termed it as tantamount to violating the judiciarys independence: hand-picking sitting judges at whim is interference in judiciarys affairs.
Olympian killed
Pakistan lost an Olympian boxer to a targeted killing in Quetta,reported The News on June 17. Syed Abrar Hussain,three-time Olympic boxer and deputy director-general of the Pakistan Sports Board,was gunned down by unknown armed men outside the Sports Complex at Quetta on June 16. He represented Pakistan in three Olympic Games: Los Angeles (1984),Seoul (1988) and Barcelona (1992). Apart from other laurels,Hussain laid claim to a gold medal at the 11th Asian Games in Beijing in 1990.
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