Twenty months on: Police still clueless about top cardiologist’s murder

Senate panel told culprits have still not been traced despite multiple probes

ISLAMABAD: In what appears to be a failure to duly investigate, the capital police have admitted that they are still clueless about the high-profile murder of Professor Dr Shahid Nawaz Malik, almost two years after he was killed.

A renowned cardiologist, Dr Malik was shot in the head by unidentified gunmen on February 13, 2015, when he was coming out of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) after performing a surgery. He was initially admitted at the hospital before being shifted to CMH Rawalpindi, where he died six days later. Dr Malik was the head of the Pims cardiology department at the time.

Deputy Inspector General of Police (Headquarters) Khalid Khattak recently told a parliamentary panel that they had no clue about the attackers who targeted Prof Dr Malik.

“Dr Malik was my friend, and I was his patient as well, but we are clueless about the culprits,” the senior police official admitted on Wednesday before the Senate Standing Committee on Interior, chaired by Senator Rehman Malik, after the victims’ families expressed apprehensions over the delay in the arrest of culprits.

During Wednesday’s meeting, Dr Malik’s daughter said that her family was not satisfied with the investigation process, complaining that the police had failed to approach them.



The meeting was held nearly six months after another meeting of the committee had recommended that a joint investigation team (JIT) should be formed to probe the case. In that meeting, the slain cardiologist’s daughter, Dr Hifsa Shahid, had expressed her utter dissatisfaction over the pace of investigation in the case and demanded for formation of JIT comprising forces’ personnel. She had also complained about the attitude of Pims administration towards her family.

DIG Khattak told the panel on Wednesday that the murder of an ordinary man or a high profile figure is equal for them. However, while expressing his helplessness, the official said the police were clueless about the culprits and they have been unable to track them down.

The parliamentary panel asked Dr Malik’s family to write down and submit their apprehensions over delays in investigations to the panel.

The police official, however, claimed that they were trying their utmost in the case and that a JIT was investigating the case. Separately, a superintendent of police was also probing the case.

Interestingly, the committee’s chairman did not reprimand the police for failing to apprehend the culprits. He did, however, appreciate DIG Khattak for placing the agenda before the committee and referred to him as a good police official.

He recounted that when he was the interior minister during the Pakistan Peoples Party’s tenure, DIG Khattak had worked with him.

Curiously, no other lawmaker attending the committee meeting asked the official any question on why it was taking so long to arrest the culprits despite having the latest technology at its disposal.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 21^st, 2016.