ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday decided to try serving judge and his wife in child maid torture case.

Justice Aamer Farooq had reserved the verdict on the transfer of case from judicial magistrate to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on March 17.

The court ruled that the trial was being shifted from sessions’ court to the IHC to ensure transparency and fairness in the case.

The Additional District and Sessions Judge, Raja Khurram Ali Khan, and his wife, Maheen Zafar, were facing charges of keeping 10-year-old housemaid Tayyaba in wrongful confinement, burning her hand over a missing broom, beating her with a ladle, detaining her in storeroom and threatening her of dire consequences.

On March 8, the Supreme Court (SC) referred the case to IHC to consider transferring the case from the judicial magistrate court to any other subordinate court or assuming its own jurisdiction in the case.

The decision has been taken to ensure transparency in trial

Currently, Judicial Magistrate Islamabad, Syed Haider Ali Shah, was conducting trial in the case.

Civil Society, being represented by Asma Jahangir, had also sought the transfer of the case under Section 526 (High Court may transfer case or itself try it) of the Criminal Procedure Code urging the court to transfer the case to high court to ensure a transparent trial.

The SC had taken suo motu notice of the matter after reports of torture on Tayyaba were surfaced on social media and a subsequent compromise reached between the ADSJ and the minor girl’s family.

Supreme Court also found anomalies in handling the minor housemaid case while the matter was in the subordinate judiciary of Islamabad. Tayyaba was allegedly tortured by the family of ADSJ Raja Khurram Ali Khan and the case surfaced on Dec 28 and an FIR was registered against him and his wife on Dec 29.

By Jan 2, the ADSJ had signed a compromise deed with Tayyaba’s parents through their lawyer, Raja Zahoor Hassan and obtained pre-arrest bail for his wife from fellow ADSJ Raja Asif Mehmood.

On Jan 3, another colleague of the judge, ADSJ Atta Rabbani handed custody of the child to her parents after a few minutes of proceedings on a habeas corpus application.

Opposing transfer of case from subordinate judiciary to the high court, the counsel for both the victim and the accused sides claimed that the right of appeal in at least two forums – judicial magistrate and an additional district and sessions judge level - would not be available if IHC would conduct the trial.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2017