Ex-policeman immolates himself in Supreme Court protest

Man pleading for justice set himself on fire to attract Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry’s attention.

ISLAMABAD:

The country’s highest court echoed with the cries of a man pleading for justice after he set himself on fire to attract Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry’s attention to his case on Monday.

Asad Munir, a police constable dismissed from service, resorted to self-immolation in the Supreme Court (SC) to protest the delay in justice.

“I was dismissed from service for marrying SHO Rajanpur Pervez Akhtar’s cousin. He forced me to divorce her at gunpoint,” he told The Express Tribune. “The additional district judge Rajanpur found the SHO guilty and ruled in my favour.”

He said his children were minors. “I filed two applications in the Supreme Court. I have been coming to the Supreme Court for the last three years but no one listens to my pleas,” Munir said. Disillusioned with the judicial system, he set himself alight to call attention to his case.

Munir was rushed to the court’s dispensary for treatment and later to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences burns centre. The Punjab Inspector General has submitted a report to the Supreme Court which stated that the constable was dismissed for going on “unauthorised leave and irresponsible conduct unbecoming of a police official.”

He filed two departmental appeals which were rejected. He never appealed against the Punjab Service Tribunal’s decision. Last March, he had filed an appeal in the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court Bar Association president Asma Jahangir said the incident was indicative of a dangerous trend. “A large number of people visit my office daily to request me to help them get justice. A new mechanism should be evolved to redress grievances if the SC’s human rights cell is to be made effective.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 21^st, 2011.