LAHORE: Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar on Tuesday got a son of former federal minister Siddique Kanju arrested at the courtroom No 1 of the Supreme Court on charges of detaining and abusing his maids.

The parents of maids Yasmin and Saima appeared before a two-judge bench with a complaint that Amin Kanju, the son of the former minister, used to physically torture their daughters. Muhammad Rafiq, the father of the girls, said his daughters were employed at the house of Kanju. However, he said, Kanju often kept his daughters in detention and tortured them too. Lastly, he said, Kanju levelled a theft allegation at the girls, detained them for days and physically tortured them.

“Why don’t you stop victimising the poor?” Chief Justice Nisar asked Kanju, who was present in the court. He ordered the police to arrest Kanju and proceed against him in accordance with the law.

Another son of Siddique Kanju namely Mustafa Kanju is a court’s absconder as he fled the country soon after his acquittal in a murder case following ‘reconciliation’ with the complainant party.

In 2015, an anti-terrorism court had acquitted Mustafa Kanju and his guards of the charges of killing Zain, 16, and injuring another person namely Hasnain in Gulberg. The prosecution challenged the acquittal of the suspects on direction of the Supreme Court in a suo motu case.

Kanju never appeared before the Lahore High Court on the prosecution’s appeal as he escaped the country.

Finally he was declared an absconder while the prosecution engaged Interpol for his arrest.

Published in Dawn, December 26th, 2018