Perveen Rehman murder case: Arrest real culprits in a month, says SC

Says it cannot dispose of the case after the death of the alleged murderer

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court has given one-month time to joint investigation team (JIT) – probing into the murder of ex-director Orangi Pilot Project (OPP) Perveen Rehman – to arrest the real culprits behind the crime.

Hearing the suo motu case on Wednesday, a three-judge bench of the apex court – headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Nasirul Mulk – also made it clear that it was not disposing of the case after the killing of Mehfoozullah Bhallo, a criminal accused by the JIT as being the killer of Rehman.

“This is not an individual’s matter but also an issue of public importance,” the bench noted.

Earlier an official of the Sindh Police, Crime Investigation Agency’s (CIA) DIG Sultan Ali Khawaja – who also heads the JIT – admitted before the bench that their capacity to probe ‘blank cases’ was limited.

The DIG claimed that Mehfoozullah Bhallo, who died last week in Karachi in an encounter with police, was involved in the murder of the OPP’s former chief.

However, he assured the bench that they were not closing the investigation and would probe others involved in this murder with the cooperation of Intelligence Bureau (IB).

“We have probed the land mafias but still have not received any information or clue regarding their direct involvement in this case,” he said.

Raheel Kamran Sheikh, the counsel for the petitioners – including Human Rights Commission of Pakistan – reiterated the points mentioned in an earlier application and alleged that the JIT was deliberately ignoring the involvement of land mafia in the murder ‘because of vested interests of a wide range of influential parties’.

The counsel for petitioners requested reconstitution of the JIT. He also recommended that relevant officials of government of Sindh’s Board of Revenue should also be included and be asked to explain as to why the process of regularisation of urban villages – a job Perveen Rehman was doing – had been halted after her murder.

However, the bench observed that it could not give direction to the JIT on how to conduct the investigation. It also appreciated the JIT chief Khawaja, who has made significant contribution in other investigations including the probe into the murder of Geo News reporter Wali Khan Baber.

The court later adjourned the hearing of the case until November 12.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2^nd, 2014.