Perween Rahman murder: SC urged to transfer case back to Islamabad

Petitioners’ counsel cites security reason for transferring case from Karachi registry

ISLAMABAD: The counsel of petitioners in the Perween Rahman murder case has once again urged the Supreme Court to transfer the case from its Karachi registry to its principal seat in Islamabad for reasons of security.

Perween, the director of the Orangi Pilot Project, was gunned down near her office in Karachi’s Orangi Town locality on March 13, 2013, allegedly at the behest of elements running a land grabbing racket and the water tanker mafia.

The top court took suo moto action over the incident on the applications of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and 11 persons belonging to civil society groups. The case had been heard at Islamabad registry till July 7, 2015, but former chief justice Nasirul Mulk transferred it to Karachi registry since it concerned the city.

Talking to The Express Tribune, petitioners’ counsel Raheel Kamran Sheikh said the chief justice has been requested to transfer the case back to Islamabad as the petition to probe Perween’s murder was instituted and filed in the federal capital on July 30, 2013. Moreover, he said that the advocate on record for this case, Syed Safdar Hussain, is also from Islamabad. Raheel Kamran twice filed the application for transferrin the case, but it was declined.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 28^th, 2016.