Child maid’s ‘torture’ moves top judge

Mian Saqib Nisar takes notice a day after the father of the 10-year-old ‘forgave’ judge and his wife

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday took suo motu notice of alleged torture of a child maid working in the household of a judge in the federal capital.

Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar took the notice a day after the father of the 10-year-old housemaid, Tayyaba, ‘forgave’ Additional District & Sessions Judge Raja Khurram Ali Khan and his wife.

The judge and his wife were booked after the juvenile maid recorded her statement before police in the presence of Assistant Commissioner Potohar Nisha Ishtiaq. The judge's wife was granted bail.

The judge and his wife were accused of keeping the juvenile housemaid in wrongful confinement, burning her hand over a missing broom, beating her with a ladle, detaining her in a storeroom and threatening her with even worse.

The CJP took notice of the alleged torture and subsequent patch-up, and sought a detailed report from the Islamabad High Court (IHC) registrar within 24 hours.

The grisly story of the juvenile maid was picked up by the electronic media after it went viral on social media earlier this week. Subsequently, IHC’s top judge took notice and directed the registrar to initiate an inquiry. The registrar summoned the judge and concerned police officials and recorded their statements before submitting them to the IHC chief justice.

However, the maid’s father ‘pardoned’ the judge before the inquiry could be completed.

In the FIR, the girl stated that she had been living at the judge’s house for nearly two years where she was often beaten up. She said when she had lost a broom, ‘Mano Baji’, the judge’s wife, forced her hand into  fire, until her flesh sizzled. She was hit on her face with a hot ladle; forced to spend nights locked up in a tiny room, hungry and starving.

Meanwhile, the executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) has constituted a medical board to examine the child maid. Islamabad’s District Magistrate Captain (retired) Abdul Sattar Isani had written a letter to PIMS’s executive director for the constitution of medical board in the case.

The board, comprising Dr Tariq Iqbal, Dr Hameedud Din, Dr S H Waqar and Dr Asma, is expected to submit its report in 48 hours.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 5^th, 2017.