PESHAWAR, May 15: The Peshawar High Court has quashed an FIR registered here against known human rights activists Hina Jillani and Asma Jehangir five years ago in the famous honour-related murder case of Samia Imran.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Malik Hamid Saeed and Justice Shahjehan Khan Yousufzai, accepted a writ petition filed by Ms Jillani and ruled that the FIR registered at the Hayatabad Police Station on May 22, 1999, was illegal.

The FIR was registered by a former president of Sarhad Chambers of Commerce and Industries, Ghulam Sarwar Mohmand, stating that the two sisters, Hina Jillani and Asma Jehangir, had kidnapped his daughter Samia Imran in connivance with two army captains and her kidnapping from Peshawar finally ended in her death at Lahore.

The killing of Samia Imran had drawn international criticism as the woman was killed in the chamber of Hina Jillani, the Secretary-General of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, on April 6, 1999, by a person named Habibur Rehman, who was accompanying the mother of the deceased to the chamber. The killer was also killed by the guard on duty.

Former attorney-general of Pakistan Qazi Muhammad Jamil appeared for the petitioner and argued that registration of the impugned FIR at the Hayatabad Police Station was illegal and the respondent, Mr Mohmand, had used his influence for its registration.

He argued that deceased Samia Imran was adult and mother of two children. He added that she had gone to Lahore with her free will and was seeking legal assistance from the petitioner for getting divorce from her husband. The mother of the deceased, he stated, along with Mr Mohmand, his brother, and a bodyguard visited the petitioner's office on the pretext of meeting the deceased and there the bodyguard, Habibur Rehman, killed Saima.

Mr Jamil argued that an FIR was registered against Saima's mother and brother by the petitioner for killing Ms Samia Imran and they were tried by a court in Lahore. He said that as the offence was compoundable under the Qisas and Diyat law, therefore the legal heirs of the deceased woman, including her husband, forgave the accused.

He said that for pressuring the petitioner for withdrawing that FIR the respondent, Ghulam Sarwar Mohmand, filed an application with the civil judge-cum-judicial magistrate, Ms Nazli Shehzadi, who ordered the police to act in accordance with law. He said that in an illegal manner the officials of Hayatabad Police Station registered an FIR against the petitioners on May 22, 1999.

Advocate Lateef Afridi appeared for Mr Mohmand and argued that the court could not interfere in the police investigation.

Justice Hamid Saeed inquired from him that if the police had been acting with mala fide against a party then the court could interfere or not.

The bench inquired from the additional advocate-general, Muhammad Saeed Khan, whether the high court had the jurisdiction to interfere in the case. Mr Saeed stated that the court had the powers to interfere at this stage.