ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary committee on Friday took notice of the delay in registering the first information report (FIR) in the abduction of the 10-year old girl, who was later found murdered.

The Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights wondered why it took father of the girl to approach the police on three consecutive days to get an FIR registered against her disappearance.

“How did the police make the worried family members clean the police station instead? The father called for action to be taken against the SHO and other officials involved on the ground of negligence. Why were there problems during postmortem?” said chairman of the committee Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar of the PPP.

A case was registered against Station House Officer (SHO) Shahzad Town Mohammad Abbas Rana and other officials for negligence.

Senate’s human rights committee wonders why it took father of the missing girl three consecutive days to get an FIR registered

The committee met for a briefing on lapses on part of the police in the case.

The chairman said: “The committee takes strong acceptation to the fact that the culture of bias and prejudice does exist in the Islamabad police. The delay in registering an FIR by police is inexplicable. The attitude of the concerned SHO towards the girl’s family is condemnable. The IGP must make efforts to improve the culture in the police.”

Senators Usman Khan Kakar and Kamran Michael condemned what they called state’s insensitivity in the girl’s case.

Both complained that neither the prime minister nor the minister for human rights visited the family to condole.

Senator Kakar criticised the media for giving murder the coverage it needed to highlight the heinous offence.

“One news channel distracted from the real issue and started questioning the nationality of the murdered girl’s father as Afghan,” he said.

Senator Jehanzeb Jamaldini said the committee should continue taking up the matter until the perpetrators are arrested.

MNA Mohsin Dawar was also critical of the state for registering cases against individuals who protested to draw attention towards seriousness of the girl’s murder and against the state insensitivity.

“The PM could at least have condoled on twitter,” Mr Dawar said.

While conceding flaws in police behaviour, IGP Islamabad Mohammad Aamir Zulfiqar Khan refrained from commenting on the ill-treatment of the family by the police and details of the postmortem report.

He suggested to the committee to wait for the outcome of the judicial report to ascertain the police negligence.

“However, the SHO and the DSP have been suspended for failing to inform superior officers. They should have been cognizant but displayed carelessness. An FIR should have been registered in maximum of five to six hours after the disappearance was reported,” Mr Khan said.

He also refrained from discussing further the progress made in the case unless the meeting was held in camera.

Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Mohammad Hamza Shafqaat informed the meeting that a judicial inquiry was underway to ascertain police negligence and ill-treatment of the family members. The report will be available on May 29.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2019