Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has warned that anyone found facilitating suspended Malir SSP Rao Anwar, wanted in the Naqeebullah Mehsud killing case, will be held accountable.

The warning was delivered by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Saqib Nisar on Monday as a three-member bench resumed the suo motu case of Naqeebullah Mehsud’s extra-judicial murder.

Chief Justice Nisar said that strict action would be taken against those found facilitating Anwar’s bid to escape the country or giving him shelter.

If Anwar surrenders himself to the court, he will be protected, the chief justice observed.

When Sindh Police Inspector General AD Khawaja was asked who issued Anwar a boarding pass, when he made a botched attempt to fly abroad from Islamabad airport, Khawaja replied that a private airline had issued him a boarding pass.

The chief justice then summoned the relevant officials of the airline.

Khawaja would give an in-camera briefing to the court at 1:30pm today (Tuesday) regarding the CCTV footage of Anwar’s botched attempt to flee the country in late January.

During the hearing, the chief justice also asked the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) governor, who was present in court, if Anwar’s bank accounts had been frozen.

Replying in the affirmative, the SBP governor said two of the suspended police officer’s bank accounts had been seized. Responding to the chief justice’s question if the officer’s salary was being deposited in his accounts, the SBP chief replied in the affirmative, adding that the officer, however, could not withdraw his salary.

Anwar, suspended from his post of Malir SSP, has been absconding in the murder case of Mehsud, a 27-year-old native of Waziristan, who, among three others, was killed in a fake police encounter in Karachi on January 13 on Anwar’s orders.

At the last hearing of the case in Karachi on March 16, the Sindh police chief had informed the chief justice that he needed more time to trace Anwar.

At an earlier hearing last Wednesday in Islamabad, the Supreme Court revealed that Anwar had reportedly sent another letter seeking to unfreeze his bank accounts. On February 13, the court had revealed Rao’s first letter, claiming innocence and seeking an impartial inquiry.

A three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Nisar, had taken suo motu notice of the case after protests erupted against Karachi’s ‘notorious cop’. Several of Anwar’s associates in the police had been arrested in Karachi but the former Malir SSP had been evading authorities since late January.

Published in Daily Times, March 20^th 2018.