July 20, 2006	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 23, 1427

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

LAHORE, July 19: Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry of the Supreme Court on Wednesday observed that punishing an accused in offences is the job of courts and not of police which must confine themselves to their duty of making offenders subject to judicial dispensation.

Presiding over a three-member bench of the apex court, the chief justice took strong exception to the killing of accused Mazhar Iqbal by the Karachi police and observed that even if he was involved in criminal cases, he could not have been killed. For all practical purposes, this was an act of extra-judicial killing, which was a matter of grave concern. He also observed that involvement in criminal offences did not mean that the police had a reason to kill.

Hearing human rights cases, the bench, which also had Justice Syed Tasadduq Husain Jilani and Justice Karamat Nazir Bhandari on it, directed Sindh IGP Jehangir Mirza and Karachi SP Zubair Mehmood to investigate into the murder of Mazhar Iqbal and submit a complete report in court, which would now take up the case on July 28.

IGP Jahangir Mirza and SP Zubair Mahmood appeared in court under a notice, which was issued in the case of which the CJP had taken a suo moto notice on the basis of a newspaper report.

SP Zubair assured court that he would conduct the inquiry with all honesty and fairness and the truth would be brought to the notice of the apex court.

He submitted that deceased Mazhar Iqbal was the son of a sub-inspector of Karachi police who was involved in about 12 criminal cases. He further stated that he had so far collected record and evidence in 10 cases against him.

While the Sindh IGP deposed before the apex court in another human rights case that the police had arrested landlord Abdur Rehman Murri who was facing charges of abducting nine-member of a `Hari’ (tenant) family in Mirpur Khas.

The Sindh police chief appeared before the apex court on Wednesday in the same case and submitted that the police was making efforts to arrest the landlord.

The CJP had taken a suo moto notice of the offence on the basis of a newspaper report and issued notice to the provincial police. The court, however, directed the police to investigate the matter.

APPOINTED: The Lahore High Court chief justice has appointed presiding officers of special courts at Faisalabad and Sargodha.

Mohammad Islam, working as additional district and sessions judge in Lahore, and Sohail Nasir at Chakwal, were appointed judges of anti-terrorism courts after their promotion as D&SJs in BPS-20, said a notification issued here on Wednesday.

The two judges will remain on deputation with the Punjab government for tenure of two-and-a-half-year each.

The former will replace Mohammad Yusuf Aujla and the latter Mohammad Razik Nawaz who were repatriated to the judiciary after completing the deputation period.