LAHORE, Dec 24: The issue of jurisdiction of an anti-terrorist court to hear a particular case should be decided only after the framing of charge, Justice Khalilur Rahman Ramday of the Lahore High Court observed on Monday.
The judge dismissed as premature an appeal preferred by an accused against his trial by an ATC. The appellant said he was accused under the Zina Ordinance of stripping two girls and making them dance naked. The offence did not fall in the ATC purview.
According to the prosecution, however, the accused freed only one of the girls and demanded Rs1 million as ransom for releasing the other.
A case under Section 10 (4) of the Offence of Zina (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance was not punishable under the Anti-Terrorist Act, the offence of kidnapping for ransom under Section 365 (a) of the Pakistan Penal Code was to be tried by an ATC.
Justice Ramday said the question had been raised prematurely and the appellant should await for the framing of charge against him.
NOTICE TO SP: The Lahore High Court asked a police superintendent to explain why a man accused of kidnapping his minor domestic servant had not been arrested even four months after the incident and why his wife was not investigated despite being named a co-accused.
The direction was issued by Justice Khwaja Muhammad Sharif when a Faisal Town police sub-inspector informed him that while the male accused was at large, his wife was not investigated for being a woman. The judge wondered under what provision of law were women exempt from investigation or interrogation, particularly when they had been named accused in an FIR.
Nine-year-old Rubina was employed by the couple through an intermediary. Rubina’s father, the complainant in the case, lodged a report against the couple and the intermediary. While the intermediary was sought to be arrested, no action had been taken against the couple.
Granting pre-arrest bail to the intermediary after his exoneration by the complainant, the judge asked the Model Town SP to explain within two weeks why the real culprits were not taken into custody or investigated, particularly when the case involved the life of an innocent minor girl.