KARACHI: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition filed by the Sindh police for being time-barred against a former police officer accused of allegedly manipulating key aspects of the investigation in Perween Rahman murder case.

The Sindh police moved the apex court against former Manghopir SHO Ashfaq Hussain Baloch and challenged a decision of the Sindh Service Tribunal for commuting his dismissal from service into compulsory retirement.

A two-judge bench of the apex court comprising Justice Maqbool Baqar and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah dismissed the petition and observed that the petitioner approached the Supreme Court against the decision of the service tribunal.

The petitioner submitted that the former SHO was dismissed from service for misleading the investigation in the murder of Perween Rahman.

The petitioner further argued that the then SHO Manghopir killed one Qari Bilal in a staged encounter and that he was the main suspect behind the killing and announced to have solved the murder of Ms Rahman without any evidence.

Later, a judicial inquiry, headed by a district and sessions judge, had expressed serious doubts over the alleged shoot-out while a joint investigation team had declared the police encounter “fake and staged”, the petitioner added.

The former SHO was dismissed from service, but the Sindh Service Tribunal converted the dismissal into his compulsory retirement. Ms Rahman, the director of the Orangi Pilot Project, was gunned down on Manghopir Road in March 2013.

Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2019