ISLAMABAD, May 18: The Supreme Court on Friday ordered that a senior judge of the Lahore High Court should hold an inquiry into the murder of its Additional Registrar Syed Hammad Amjad Raza, instead of the district and sessions judge of Islamabad.

The Islamabad judge was appointed the inquiry officer after a direction by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz who, while announcing a judicial inquiry into the murder, had directed the Ministry of Interior and the Islamabad police to make all-out efforts to bring the culprits to book.

Father of three, the additional registrar had been murdered on Monday by four armed men.

Justice Javed Iqbal and Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, appointed by the Supreme Court to supervise investigations by police and other agencies into the murder of Mr Raza, ordered the Ministry of Interior to cancel the notification of appointing Islamabad’s district and sessions judge Mirza Rafiuzzaman the inquiry officer.

“The inquiry by the district and sessions judge would not be proper in view of the fact that cognisance of the matter has already been taken suo motu by this court and the matter is pending before senior judges of the apex court,” the court order said, adding that the inquiry at the level of district and sessions judge was not desirable.

“It would be in the interest of justice and propriety if the inquiry is conducted at a higher level and a senior judge of the LHC is notified as inquiry officer to submit his report within a fortnight,” the order said.

In a separate development, Justice Javed Iqbal ordered immediate arrest of two accused, Khalid Chandio and Malik Ziaullah, and directed Mirpurkhas district police officer and SIP Mohammad Akram to appear in the court with necessary records of a murder case. The next date of hearing will be fixed later.

Taking suo motu notice, Justice Javed Iqbal was hearing a case on an application of Ms Jado, who had accused Khalid Chandio, Naseem Arain and Ziaullah Aiwan, of killing her son Shahid Bhatti at the behest of Mehmood Sultan Chandio on Nov 23, 2006.

Police, she had alleged, had apprehended one accused, Naeem Arain, and requested the apex court to take notice of the failure of police to arrest the other two killers of her son.