Former AG’s murder: SC asks top cops to arrest senior lawyers’ murderers

Ruhullah escaped from hospital, IG claims he never ordered shifting of the prisoner.

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court on Friday expressed anger over the inability of the Islamabad and Punjab police in arresting the murderers of a former judge and a senior lawyer.

A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry with Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed as its members, directed the top cops to ensure the arrest of the murderers.

The SC bench directed the chiefs of Islamabad and Punjab police as well as prisons to prepare a joint report about how Ruhullah, accused of killing former attorney general Sardar Muhammad Khan, was shifted to a Rawalpindi hospital last August.

The accused was shifted from Adiala Jail to the District Headquarters Hospital, from where he first escaped to Dubai and later fled to Afghanistan.

The bench adjourned the case till April 22 and directed the Islamabad police chief Bani Amin to bring back the accused from Afghanistan or the court would take action against the police officers responsible for the lapse.



“As Ruhullah was booked by the Islamabad Police, why was he shifted to a Rawalpindi hospital instead of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS)? This issue needs to be looked into,” said Amin.

He said signed cheques worth Rs3.2 million were found from the accused’s hospital bed, but they did not bear the names of the beneficiaries.

Responding to a question from the bench as to how the accused was shifted to the hospital, IGP Amin said, the accused had “wanted to be moved to PIMS, claiming he was unwell, but I refused”.

Ruhullah first fled to Dubai after allegedly killing Khan, who was also a former Peshawar High Court judge. He was deported by the United Arab Emirates in February 2010, only to escape from hospital in 2012, allegedly with the connivance of jail and hospital officials. After escaping, he flew to Dubai and onwards to Afghanistan.

Amin informed the bench that he had cultivated a new source in Afghanistan to help the arrest of Ruhullah as an earlier source had refused to help for fear of his life.

Afghanistan and Pakistan have no extradition treaty and a prisoner exchange seems unlikely as the Kabul government had demanded the arrest of a man from Pakistan in exchange for Ruhullah.

“We are not satisfied with the performance of Islamabad Police in arresting the absconder as no action had been taken against the police officials who were supposed to keep an eye on the accused,” Chief Justice Chaudhry said.

The bench warned IGP Amin that if he failed to bring the accused back, the court would take strict action against everyone found responsible.

Lawyers’ safety

Separately, the bench directed the IGs of all provinces to ensure the safety of lawyers, especially on district court premises, during a hearing on the murder of Advocate Chaudhry Muhammad Khan, who was shot dead on Thursday in Rawalpindi.

The CJ expressed anger over Rawalpindi City Police Officer Azhar Hameed Khokhar’s inability to track down the killers of the lawyer and directed him to come up with concrete results on April 3.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 30^th, 2013.