ISLAMABAD: What has been the outcome of investigations into the murder of prime ministers, wondered a Supreme Court judge when a counsel bemoaned the quality of investigations into the display of banners against a judge of the apex court in Islamabad on May 22, 2014.

“One of the prime ministers was killed and another was assassinated but what is the fallout of the investigations against their murder,” Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan observed when advocate Taufiq Asif, a complainant in the banner case, described the police investigations as an eyewash.

The observation came when the counsel questioned whether the apex court would remain helpless and at the mercy of faulty police investigations if such a precedence was allowed to develop.

Tomorrow it may become an issue of State’s integrity where the life of a prime minister may be involved, the counsel regretted.

The poor investigation by the police in the banner case was evident from the fact that neither any CCTV footage was acquired to identify the culprits, nor were statements of any police personnel deployed in the city on that date recorded.

The court, however, disposed of the matter with an observation that the court cannot step into the shoes of the investigation agencies after investigating officer SSP Iqbal Ahmed assured the court that the police had sufficient material to implicate those who had been challaned in the matter. He explained that whatever was possible had been done by the police.

“The role of the court is to oversee the investigating agencies, how they proceed and cannot do much if the investigation is satisfactory for the State,” Justice Afzal observed.

Deputy Attorney General Sajid Ilyas Bhatti, however, told the court that the investigation had identified 12 accused.

According to the police report submitted on behalf of the additional inspector general police (operations) Islamabad, the special investigation team (SIT) probed the case minutely, recorded the statement of every concerned person, arrested the actual accused and challaned them to face their fate under the law.

The report also conceded that investigations had suggested that abetment had been found on part of an anchorperson after which attempts were made to arrest him but he managed to get an interim bail from the court concerned.

The SIT concluded that all the accused except the abettors involved in placing the banners had been arrested and sent to the judicial custody. During the investigations, the report added, no evidence came on record to substantiate the fact that any other person was also involved, other than the 12 accused.

As desired by the apex court, a discreet probe was also carried out during which it transpired that no objectionable banners were displayed within the Red Zone though they were placed outside the high security area.

Sponsored by an unknown organisation “Farzand-i-Islam,” the banners had leveled serious allegations at the apex court judge, Jawad S. Khawaja, who later retired as the chief justice of Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2015