Over the plea of heirs of slain director of Orangi Pilot Project Karachi Perveen Rahman and incumbent director of the project on Tuesday, Supreme Court issued directives to Federal and Sindh governments to take steps against perpetrators behind making threatening and obnoxious telephone calls in the matter.
Resuming the hearing of the matter, a three-member bench led by Justice Azmat Saeed Sheikh expressed dismay over lacklustre performance of the concerned authorities because no progress has been shown since March 12, 2014 when Perveen Rahman was brutally killed by two unknown motorcyclists in Karachi.
Parveen Rahman was a social worker and activist who devoted her life for development of the impoverished. She had also compiled records of lands on the fringes of the city in the shape of villages which quickly vanished due to migration of thousands of families from across the country to metropolis Karachi every year.
After her murder, Parveen Rahman’ car driver Wali Dad had registered an FIR whereas Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) also filed a petition for independent, fair, and effective reinvestigation into her targeted killing.
During the course of proceedings, counsel for petitioner Raheel Kamran Sheikh, submitted before the bench that no tangible action has been taken by the concerned authorities in the current matter during the last five years.
Seeking the court intervention and support for legal action, sister of Parveen Rehman informed the bench that the family has been receiving threatening phone calls from unknown individuals to which Justice Azmat Saeed Sheikh observed that tough threatening calls were being made from abroad, the individual may be a Pakistani.
Counsel for the petitioners apprised the bench that government failed to cater his application to form a new JIT to probe into matter saying the former JIT in its final report before the Supreme Court during April last year has accepted that it was unable to fix exact role of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leader Qari Bilal in the killing. He submitted that a sub-inspector of the Karachi Police Moeed was the one who maneuvered the case in that direction.
Sheikh contended that confessional statements of certain accused individuals recorded through the investigating agencies are not judicial confessions so the court shall not be able to secure their conviction.
Appearing before the bench, an additional secretary of interior ministry informed that federal cabinet has granted approval for new JIT saying notice of which would be issued soon. Hearing of the case was adjourned for two weeks.
Published in Daily Times, January 23rd 2019.
