January 18, 2006	Wednesday	Zilhaj 17, 1426

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ISLAMABAD, Jan 17: The Human Rights Committee of the Senate was informed on Tuesday that a hit and run case had been amicably settled between the son of the accident victim and the driver of an intelligence agency and that the court had confirmed the latter’s pre-arrest bail.

The committee’s meeting was requisitioned by three members “to discuss the incident of hit and run allegedly by an official vehicle” as reported in the press.

Senator Raza Rabbani and Farhatullah Babar of People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP) and Dr Mohammad Said of Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) had requisitioned the meeting. The meeting was presided over by Dr Khalid Ranjha in the absence of S M Zafar, who is abroad.

According to a source in the opposition, the committee, however, directed the interior ministry to seek the comments of the Ministry of Defence on three points raised by Senator Babar concerning the hit and run incident.

Senator Babar said that he welcomed the compromise between the victim’s son and the poor driver belonging to a government agency but there were three important points that needed clarification.

First, he said the incident took place on November 26 and the driver fled from the scene after seeing that the victim had died. The driver did not secure bail before arrest even after an FIR had been lodged on the day of occurrence.

However, he applied for bail before arrest after nearly five weeks of the incident on January 4, 2005 only after the Senate Human Rights Committee meeting was requisitioned, he said.

Mr Babar asked as to why the government department to which the vehicle belonged did not take action for five weeks until the Senate committee meeting was requisitioned forcing the driver to get the pre-arrest bail. Second, he asked whether any departmental action had been taken against the driver even after the victim’s son had made a compromise with him.

Third, he asked whether it was right and proper and consistent with the principle of equality before law that uniformed personnel were exempt from police action under the normal law of the land in cases of accidents involving deaths on roads.

The committee asked the representative of the Interior Ministry attending the meeting to get a clarification from the defence ministry on the points raised and inform the committee in its next meeting.

It may be mentioned that on November 26, 2005, an 82-year-old man of Lakki Marwat was hit by a car near Golra Mor in Rawalpindi while on way to his village after a medical checkup. Reportedly, the official vehicle was driven by a soldier in uniform and seated next to him was a non-commissioned officer (NCO).

A lady passenger was on the rear seat according to the press reports. The reports also said that after hitting the old man, the driver and the NCO got down and after seeing that the old man was already dead, they drove away.