FBI team accuses prosecutor of spoiling Wajiha’s case

Asks district attorney office to replace legal representative of victim

RAWALPINDI:

A two-member US FBI team has expressed a lack of confidence in the public prosecutor who is pursuing the slain US-Pakistani woman Wajih Swati's murder case in the trial court.

The FBI team accused the public prosecutor of spoiling the case and taking sides with the accused. The FBI team formally lodged its complaint with the district attorney's office and the authorities have decided to replace the public prosecutor.

The FBI team has been monitoring the hearing of the case from day one, and they attended every hearing. The FBI team consists of a male and a female officer.

The FBI team also met with senior police officials and the investigative team personnel and sought to expedite the trial. The FBI team has also conducted a forensic audit of the victim's iPhone from the US. The DNA test of the victim's body was also conducted in the US and these two American forensic lab reports have been submitted to the court as part of the case. A decision is also expected at the next hearing.

Following the objection by the FBI team, Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Afzal Majoka adjourned the hearing till May 17.

The court recorded the statement of an official witness while six witnesses were summoned for recording the statement at the next hearing.

On Wednesday, before the hearing began, the father of one of the accused, Zahida, who is accused of washing the crime scene, got into a heated argument with Rizwan Habib, the main accused and the husband of the slain woman outside the courtroom.

He said that he had been informed that his daughter would be granted bail soon but that did not happen for months. He said that he had been tricked. Meanwhile, police intervened and separated both of them.

The hearing on the bail application of accused Zahida on medical grounds was also adjourned till the next date. The court sent another notice to the superintendent of Adiala jail, asking him it should be explicitly explained what ailment the accused was suffering from?

All six accused including Rizwan Habib, Sultan, Hurriyatullah, Rasheed, Zahida, and accused Zahid, were also presented in the courtroom.

Swati had reached Pakistan on October 16 from the US via the UK and was brutally murdered the next day by her former husband Rizwan Habib and his accomplices.

The body was transported to Khyber-Pakhtunkwa by the killers and it remained buried in a deep pit for 63 days before the Rawalpindi police recovered it and shifted it to the garrison town.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2022.