Land mafia involved in Perveen Rehman's murder: JIT report

JIT seeks three-weeks' time to submit final report

ISLAMABAD: An interim report, submitted in the apex court by a newly-constituted joint investigation team (JIT), has also hinted at alleged involvement of land mafia in the March 2013 assassination of Orangi Pilot Project director Perveen Rehman in Karachi.

The JIT, comprising officials of police, intelligence agencies, Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), Rangers and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), submitted the report on Wednesday before the Supreme Court.

A three-judge SC bench, headed by Justice Azmat Saeed Sheikh, is hearing a petition filed by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan against the Singh government and others for failing to catch the culprit behind the murder of Rehman.

The report said the JIT was convinced that Rehman’s murder was truly a conspiracy hatched by those threatened by her efforts to highlight the issue of land grabbing and her championing of the Goth Abad scheme in Sindh’s capital.

It said the real investigation of the case only began in 2015, three years after Rehman’s murder. The time lapse made it very difficult to gether technical evidence that would have assisted in the probe.

The JIT observed that it was evident that the decision to link the suspect, Qari Bilal, to Rehman’s murder could not have been made by lower police functionaries.

“The then DIG West Javed Odho also made clear that he took part in the press conference at the behest of the SSP West, who had informed him that Qari Bilal had murdered Perveen Rehman.

“Similarly, Raja Ulfat and Ashfaq Baloch as well as the various staff members of the SSP west office have clearly indicated that SI Moeed manipulated and misled the SSP into agreeing that the two cases were linked or whether the SSP himself initiated this idea in order to close the file on the case.

“In either case, it would represent a command failure on the part of a senior officer to properly supervise the investigation and that too one as high profile as the murder of Perveen Rehman,” said the report.

After submitting the interim report, the JIT head sought three-week time from the top court to finalise the investigation report. The team said: it wanted to “examine the context of a wider motive behind the killing before the submission of a final report in which it will attempt to find a concrete link between the work that Rehman was doing and the elements or forces that were most affected and impacted by [it].



The report was submitted three weeks after the SC said it would closely monitor the progress of the JIT formed nearly five years after the murder of Rehman.

Earlier, petitioners’ counsel Raheel Kamran Sheikh appeared before the bench and raised questions over the policemen who hushed up the case. He said there were “material mistakes made by the initial investigating officer as well as the concerned SHO which adversely affected the merits of investigation.”

During the last hearing, Justice Azmat had observed that it was “an embarrassment for the Sindh government as well as the court that the real culprits could not be identified.” He had said the court shall not let the matter rest. “We will keep our eyes on the JIT.”

The hearing of case is adjourned till third week of April.