PESHAWAR, Feb 21: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Thursday allowed leave to appeal to four police officials in connection with registration of an FIR against them on orders of the Peshawar High Court for killing a person in an alleged encounter.
A division bench comprising Justice Mian Mohammad Ajmal and Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan also extended interim relief earlier granted to the petitioners — DSP Gul Afzal Khan and three station house officers (SHOs) Fareed Hussain, Fazal Muhammad and Sheikh Fareed — whereby operation on the said FIR was suspended.
The four officials had filed leave to appeal petition against the order of Peshawar High Court through which the court had ordered the Crimes Branch Police to register an FIR against the four officials under section 302 of Qisas and Diyat Law.
The petitioners had also filed an application requesting the court to suspend operation on the FIR registered by the Crimes Branch against them.
Counsel for the petitioners contended that the officials had gone to Buner district for arresting the deceased Ali haider, who was charged in a dacoity occurred in Peshawar. He stated that the deceased, a notorious outlaw wanted in various cases.
A woman, Shahi Lal, had filed a petition before the high court, stating that the police had killed her son Ali Haider in a fake police encounter on the night between July 8 and 9, 2000. She claimed that the then SSP Peshawar, Malik Saad, masterminded the conspiracy of killing her son.
The high court accepted her petition and directed the Crimes Branch to register an FIR against the four officials. However, Malik Saad was exonerated by the court.
A writ petition of Malik Saad is also pending before the high court as he was exonerated by the court, but despite that his name was placed in the panel of accused by the Crimes Branch police.
