Widow of PAF officer approaches IHC for help

IHC issues notices to defence ministry secretary, police, PIMS medical superintendent

ISLAMABAD: A widow of a Group Captain in the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) has sought the Islamabad High Court’s help to investigate ‘mysterious’ death of her husband.

Subsequently, Justice Aamer Farooq of the IHC has issued notices to the secretary Ministry of Defence, the Islamabad police and the Medical Superintendent of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) on her petition and sough reply in a fortnight.

Petitioner Tanzela Khan through her counsel Inamur Rahiem approached the court requesting it to constitute a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) comprising of senior officers of the police, Intelligence Bureau and the Federal Investigation Agency to investigate the murder of petitioner’s husband.

Group Captain Rizwan Ateeq was found dead in a room on July 10 with PAF officials terming it a suicide. The counsel, however, has sought court’s help in registering an FIR with the police for Attique’s murder.



Rahiem has requested the court to direct the authorities to provide the personal belongings of Ateeq, including files, cheque books and other documents. Also, he has asked the court to direct respondents to
provide certified copies of autopsy, histopathology and toxicology reports along with relevant documents.

In addition, he has asked the court to restrain the respondents from harassing and threatening the petitioner and her family.

Though the PAF officials had maintained that the officer had committed suicide by hanging himself from the grill of a window with a ‘chadar’ – bed sheet – her wife has claimed in the petition that a PAF official had informed her that her husband passed away at 7:00am on July 10.  The matter was reported to the police at around 12noon.

While issuing notices, the court directed the respondents to submit reply in a fortnight.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 29^th, 2017.