ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought an explanation from the Islamabad IG Tariq Masood Yasin for the security lapse which resulted in the murder of Barrister Malik Fahad, a nephew of former Senate chairman Mohammedmian Soomro on Aug 15.

Malik Fahad was killed on Aug 15 in Sector F-10 when he left the police station after mediating between Raja Arshad and Malik Tariq, although the two groups had earlier reached an agreement at the police station.

The report was called from the top police boss on a suo motu notice taken by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali with an observation that the lack of proper security arrangements by the administration constitutes violation of fundamental right to life and liberty which has been guaranteed under Article 9 of the Constitution. The IG Islamabad has to submit the report within a week.

The suo motu notice was taken on a note sent to the chief justice by Supreme Court Registrar Arbab Muhammad Arif in which he briefly stated the entire episode of the incident.

The note regretted that the incident could have been averted had the vehicles of the rival groups been properly checked and searched by the Islamabad police. The rival groups came to the police stations in these vehicles.

Moreover, when the police saw that the two parties were antagonistic towards each other, they should have anticipated breach of peace and should have taken all precautionary measures in order to avoid a clash between them.

The note also regretted that because of the lethargic attitude of the police department, one of the accused initially succeeded in obtaining interim bail from the court of district and sessions judge, Islamabad which now has been cancelled and the accused has been handed over to police on physical remand.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2016