Child maid torture: IHC to take on parents’ negligence

Directs them to appear before court to record statements


Rizwan Shehzad May 06, 2017
Directs them to appear before court to record statements. PHOTO: EXPRESS/FILE

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court has ordered parents of a minor housemaid*, who was allegedly tortured in a judge’s house, to appear before the court in order to verify their statements exonerating the judge and his wife of all charges.

Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani ordered the authorities to produce parents of the juvenile housemaid on May 10 so that their statements could be recorded afresh and verified in light of the affidavits their lawyer had submitted earlier.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Raja Khurram Ali Khan and his wife Maheen Zafar were booked after the victim accused them of keeping her in wrongful confinement, burning her hand over a missing broom, beating her with a ladle, detaining her in the storeroom and threatening her of even worse consequences.

During Friday’s hearing, Justice Kayani asked “why is the state silent against [the] parents” of the juvenile in the case.

Meanwhile, Advocate General Mian Abdul Rauf told the court that the girl’s parents had joined the investigation and that their statements recorded before the Supreme Court supported prosecution’s view.

“Now their statements [submitted before the IHC] are different from the ones they have recorded before the Supreme Court,” AG Rauf admitted.

“Not anymore,” remarked Justice Kayani while apparently referring to the affidavits submitted by the girl’s parents.

Justice Kayani further asked the AG Rauf if there was any legal hindrance if the parents of the minor enter into a compromise with the suspects.

Rauf explained that the Supreme Court had become a guardian of the minor involved in the case referring to when the apex court had overruled a pardon granted to the suspects by the girl’s parents and had exercised parental jurisdiction in the matter.

Rauf further argued that a few sections of the Pakistan Penal Code inserted in the FIR could not be compounded. However, he added that the parties could reach a compromise once the suspects are indicted.

At this Raja Rizwan Abbasi - the counsel for the judge and his wife – raised an objection noting that on what grounds was this not the stage to compound the matter.

The counsel argued that it was not written that first charges would have to be framed and then the parties could reach a compromise.

“This is the right stage to compound the matter,” he stated.

Abbasi also questioned under what authority had the police lodged a case with non-compoundable sections. He further pointed out that even the statement of the girl, recorded under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code had been registered before an FIR was registered.

“Every right of the suspects has been bulldozed,” he contended.

At the previous hearing, the parents of the 10-year-old girl had once again submitted an affidavit before the court which stated that they had forgiven what happened to their daughter. The girl’s father Muhammad Azam and mother Nusrat Bibi stated that they had forgiven the judge and his wife “in the name of God”.

The family further stated that they had looked into the case registered against the judge and his wife and noted that it was “on the basis of false and baseless incidents”.

Subsequently, they stated, they had struck a compromise with the judge and his wife of their own free will and without any pressure or fear.

Stating that the matter between the parties stood settled, they expressed their satisfaction that the “co-accused are innocent”. Azam and Nusrat stated that they do not wish to pursue the case, and would have no objection if the suspects were granted bail or were acquitted.

The court would now take up the case on May 10.

*Name withheld to protect identity

Published in The Express Tribune, May 6th, 2017.

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