QUETTA: A large number of students and family members of 17-year-old Saqiba Kakar, who had committed suicide after being denied permission to appear in her intermediate exams, staged a sit-in in front of the Balochistan High Court (BHC) on Wednesday to demand the formation of a judicial commission to investigate the incident.

Saqiba, a second-year student at the Government Girls Degree College in Muslim Bagh, had committed suicide after the principal allegedly refused to send her examination form to the education board for leading a protest against the suspension of classes owing to a shortage of women teachers.

The protesters carried placards and banners inscribed with their demands and blocked the main road in front of the high court, suspending traffic for several hours.

The female students, most of them peers of Saqiba, had travelled to Quetta from Muslim Bagh, to take part in the sit-in. They shouted slogans against the government. “We want justice which the government is denying to the grieving family,” said Abdul Hakim Kakar, the deceased student’s father.

He rejected the report of the inquiry committee appointed by the provincial education minister and demanded that a judicial commission be set up for an impartial inquiry.

He alleged that the police were not registering the FIR against the principal and the clerk whose names had been included in the application filed by Saqiba’s brother, Aizazullah.

The committee handed over the inquiry report to the education secretary, which would be made public after approval from the chief minister.

“The police are under pressure from a political party that is part of the government,” Mr Hakim claimed, adding that they would hold a sit-in in front of the Chief Minister House on Feb 29 if their demands were not met.

The protesters urged the BHC chief justice to take notice of the incident. BHC registrar Nazeer Ahmed Langove later met the protesters and assured that their demands would be conveyed to the authorities concerned.

Mr Hakim handed over a memorandum of demands to the registrar.

Leaders of different political parties, including Mir Sadiq Ali Umrani, the provincial president of PPP, provincial president of ANP Asghar Khan Achakzai, Nawabzada Humayun Khan Jogezai of PTI and Amanullah Kakar of JUI-Ideological also took part in the sit-in to express solidarity with the Kakar family.

The political leaders called upon the government to appoint a judicial commission to investigate the incident.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2016