27 February 2004	Friday	06 Muharram 1425

ISLAMABAD, Feb 26: The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its judgment in a suo motu case regarding the murder of a couple in Sanghar District , after observing that the police first facilitated the influential murderers and was now protecting them.

The apex court which took suo motu notice of the matter in October last year, after it had appeared in the national press that a couple, Shazia Khaskheli and Mohammad Hasan Solangi, who had married of their free will, was done to death by a firing squad following a jirga decision.

Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui, the chief justice of Pakistan, observed that it was a classic example of inefficiency and incompetence of the police department which disregarded the inquiry report of the District & Session Judge Sanghar and refused to explore the possibility of the couple being murdered in pursuance of a jirga decision or not.

The Police official led by Additional Inspector General Police (Hyderabad), Mushtaq Shah submitted that he had himself conducted the inquiry and was satisfied that the murder of the couple was not in pursuance of the jirga decision. According to police it was simple honour killing.

The court inquired if the police had recorded the statement of Dawn's correspondent who had first reported the case. The police officials said that some news reporters working with some Urdu newspapers had been contacted but they had no specific information.

When the police officials said the parties were negotiating compromise, the court observed it was the standard practice of police to hush up the cases by forcing the parties to enter into a compromise.

Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui observed that the court was not satisfied with the work of police, and wanted to how it negated the report of the Sessions Judge of Sanghar, which in its report to the Supreme Court had not ruled out the possibility of a tribal jirga being convened on the issue and the subsequent killing of the couple.

The Session Judge Sanghar Nabi Bakhsh Talpur in his report had said that both Shazia Khaskheli and Mohammad Hasan Solangi were in the custody of police and an effort was made to separate them.

The apex court bench observed that the couple had contacted the police to get protection, but it handed them over to the relatives of the girl and who murdered them.

Additional IG Sindh, DPO Sanghar, Dr. Aamir, DPO Hyderabad A.D Khawaja and SHO Sanghar Zahid Mehmood were present in the court.

When police officials tried to wriggle out of an inquiry from the court by saying that police has been divided into two parts under the new Police Order, Justice Javed Iqbal observed that the Police Ordinance 2002 had further spoiled the police system and regretted that due to the non-existence of public safety commissions, there was no instrument to keep a check on the police.