Saleem Shahzad: New judicial commission sought in plea before SC

Lawyer urges court to move quickly before evidence is destroyed.

LAHORE:

An application has been filed before the Lahore registry of the Supreme Court (SC) requesting it to constitute a new judicial commission headed by a sitting or retired judge of the SC with the consent of the chief justice (CJ) of Pakistan to investigate on an urgent basis the murder of journalist Saleem Shahzad.

Barrister Zafarullah Khan had filed the application as part of his already filed petition requesting that his petition be fixed for June 7 and that a new judicial commission be constituted as the earlier two judicial commissions constituted for the same purpose had become ineffective.

He said so far the government had formed two judicial commissions - one headed by a judge of the Shariat Court which had been rejected by the All Pakistan Newspapers Employees Confederation and the other headed by an SC judge but without the consent of the CJ. He said the consent of the CJ was a legal, administrative and proprietary requirement.

Khan said the judge notified as head of the judicial commission had also declined the position.

He said the government’s move to constitute that commission was a deceptive political move against the independence of judiciary.

He said notifications for both commissions were therefore ineffective and the journalists had only one remedy which was to approach the SC.

The barrister said he feared that in absence of prompt action by the SC, the evidence will be destroyed. He said it had been learnt that the investigation was not making much progress so far and evidence available was being destroyed methodically. This included finger prints obtained from the deceased’s car. He prayed the court that a judicial commission be appointed soon and be headed by a sitting or retired judge of SC to so that the death was investigated before the evidence is destroyed.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 18th, 2011.