Asma Rani murder: PHC allows shifting trial to Peshawar

Move okayed after govt says the state has no objection

PESHAWAR: In a move which would placate the family of a young woman gunned down by her spurned suitor, the Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Friday directed to transfer the murder trial for a young doctor from an anti-terrorism court in Kohat to one in Peshawar.

Caretaker PHC Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth issued the order after hearing the defence and prosecution in a case filed by the woman’s family.

The family of the third year medical student Asma Rani had filed an appeal in the PHC, urging the court to shift the trial from their native Kohat to around 75 kilometres north to Peshawar, claiming that they were facing threats from the accused, who belongs to an influential political family of the district.

In the petition, filed by Asma Rani’s brother Muhammad Irfan through his lawyers Ghulam Mohiuddin Malik and Muhammad Farooq Malik, explained that due to the influence of the accused, no local lawyer was willing to take up the case.

This dire situation, they claimed, was now even affecting those lawyers whom the family had approached in other cities.

“Even a lawyer who comes from other cities for proceedings is feeling insecure in Kohat,” the lawyers told the court.

They added that the family of the accused has also considerable influence on district lawyers.

“In such a situation, they will not be in a position to secure justice for Asma,” the petitioner stated, adding that they were not in a position to contest the case in Kohat.

Apart from the shifting the murder case to Peshawar, the petitioner had also requested the court to transfer a case being heard in ATC Kohat where the accused is seeking bail in the charges against him. The family contends that the accused has committed a heinous crime, and since he has already fled the country once, is a flight risk. They want the proceedings of the bail hearing to be moved to Peshawar so that they can adequately contend the application before the court.

On Friday, Additional Advocate General Waqar Ahmad also appeared before the court after being directed to explain whether the government has any objections to transferring the case from Kohat to Peshawar.

The AAG told the court that the provincial government has no objections to transferring the case to Peshawar.

After hearing the arguments, the court directed to transfer the case from Kohat to Peshawar.

The trial will now be held at the Peshawar anti-terrorism court 1.

In late January, Rani had been allegedly gunned down by Mujahid Afridi and an accomplice as she got out of a rickshaw outside her home in the Kohat Development Authority Township.

Rani, who studied in the third year at the Ayub Medical College in Abbottabad and was visiting her native Kohat on vacation at the time, had earlier turned down a marriage proposal by Afridi — a nephew of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf District President Aftab Alam.

This had angered Afridi who attacked her.

Critically injured with three bullet wounds, Rani gave a statement from her hospital bed naming Afridi as her assailant. The video, after being posted on social media, went viral.

Soon after the incident, Afridi fled to Saudi Arabia.

The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa police had subsequently requested Interpol to arrest Afridi and bring him back to the country.

Earlier in March, police in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) managed to apprehend Afridi and transported him back to Pakistan. It also emerged that six months before killing Rani, Afridi had killed a man in Kohat, but his family had managed to settle the matter.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 7^th, 2018.