Complaints Cell: LHC takes note of lawyer rape case

PBC suspends licence of advocate who allegedly raped niece.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court has instructed the Rawalpindi district and sessions judge to look into a lawyer’s alleged sexual assault of his niece and to submit a detailed report of the police investigation into the case.

The LHC noted on Monday that the Disciplinary Committee of the Punjab Bar Council had already suspended the licence of Advocate Malik Tariq Mehmood, the vice president of the Fateh Jang Bar Association, after he had failed to turn up before the committee to respond to the allegations against him.

The disciplinary committee had been moved by Mehmood’s wife, Advocate Shazia Ahmad, who alleged that her husband and a friend of his had raped her niece, a medical student, and stolen 20 tolas of gold jewellery, 2,200 pounds Sterling (Rs381,480) and her car. She said that a case had been registered at New Town police station in Rawalpindi, but the SHO was reluctant to act against Mehmood because of his influence.

The committee had summoned Mehmood, but he did not turn up to defend himself. The PBC then suspended his licence and issued a statement saying that the police were not arresting him because he was an office bearer of a bar association. The PBC asked the Lahore High Court to intervene in the matter.

SHO fails to respond to rape case plea

An additional district and sessions judge has again sought comments from the Data Darbar SHO on a petition filed by a woman seeking a case against six people, including the Auqaf Department manager at Data Darbar, for alleged rape.

The petitioner, a Samanabad resident, said that she had visited Data Darbar on October 5 after getting into a dispute with her husband. She said she met a woman there and shared her troubles with her. The woman then took her to the manager of the shrine, who told two of his subordinates to escort her to a house where she could stay the night, she said. The manager also later arrived at the house.

The petitioner said that she was served some food after which she passed out and was raped by the manager. When she came to, she was raped by four other men at gunpoint, she said. They kept her at the house for a few days and threatened to kill her if she told anyone of her ordeal, she added. The petitioner said that she eventually escaped and went to the police, but the SHO refused to register a case against the five men and the woman. She asked the court to direct the SHO to do so.

The court had at the last hearing instructed the Data Darbar SHO to submit his comments on the petition by November 18, but he did not do so, nor sent a policeman to court on his behalf to explain his stance. The court again sought his comments by November 22.

Lawyers strike over Rawalpindi incident

Lawyers on Monday observed a strike to condemn the government’s failure to maintain law and order in Rawalpindi on Muharram 10. The Punjab Bar Council had called for the strike. The lawyers did not appear before courts. LBA General Secretary Kamran Bashir Mughal told The Express Tribune that the LBA condemned the failure of government and agencies to curb violence in the Rawalpindi incident. He said, “It’s as if our security agencies have gone to sleep.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2013.