Perween Rehman murder: SC orders Sindh police chief to look into case personally

CJP-led bench expresses dissatisfaction with JIT’s progress report

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed dissatisfaction with the Sindh police’s investigation report on Perween Rehman’s murder and asked the province’s police chief to personally look into the case.

A three judge bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Anwar Zaheer Jamali observed that the police’s performance appeared to be unsatisfactory as it failed to arrest Rahim Swati, the main accused in the case.



“How will the Sindh government improve law and order in the province if it can’t even arrest the two accused in this case,” bench member Justice Khilji Arif Husssain asked the Sindh assistant advocate general (AAG), who submitted a progress report of the investigation on behalf of the joint investigation team (JIT) probing the case.



The report had recommended sending police teams to the remote areas of Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to arrest the two suspects. The JIT has already asked the inspector general (IG) of Sindh police to sanction Rs500,000 to meet the expenses incurred so far while investigating the case.

According to the report, the suspects so far arrested have all singled out Swati as having a key role in Perween’s murder during interrogation.

The suspects said Swati lived across the street from the office of the Orangi Pilot Project (OPP) – which Perween had been overseeing before her murder – and repeatedly caused trouble for OPP staff. The JIT, in the report, also wrote that Swati was running an illegal hydrant business, which Perween was opposed to, and wanted to occupy the OPP office for commercial activities.



The report also stated that Swati’s cellular phone numbers were being monitored with the assistance of agencies. It noted that Swati had been under continuous surveillance until September 2014 but since then, he has changed as many as 10 cellular numbers and eight IMEI numbers, all which are presently silent.

During proceedings, petitioners’ counsel Raheel Kamran Sheikh expressed ‘mistrust’ over police investigators and urged the court to include a senior Federal Investigation Agency official in the JIT. The bench, however, directed the Sindh IG to look into the case and submit a progress report within a month.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2016.