Daily Times

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday disposed of a petition seeking cancellation of an earlier Sindh government notification declaring former Malir SSP Rao Anwar’s house a sub-jail.

The former police officer is the prime suspect in extrajudicial murder of an aspiring Waziristan model, Naqeebullah, and four others.

The high court’s decision came on a request by Naqeebullah’s father Muhammad Khan. During the hearing, Khan’s counsel Faisal Siddiqui told the court that his client did not wish to pursue the matter further since the accused had been granted bail in the case.

Anwar is currently facing trial in an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi.

Last year through a notification, Sindh Home Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal had declared the former cop’s house a sub-jail citing ‘threats’ to his life. The decision was challenged by Khan. The advocate had stressed that the treatment extended to Anwar by allowing ‘detention in his own home declared as a sub-jail is a simple continuation of the VVIP treatment being accorded to an alleged terrorist’.

Shortly after the news of the fake encounter surfaced, a high-level inquiry committee comprising senior police officials found that the Waziristan native was killed in a ‘staged’ encounter on January 13, 2018. The incident garnered outrage leading to countrywide protests. The Supreme Court took a suo motu notice of the matter and summoned Anwar – who later went underground.

On January 23, 2018, Anwar was caught by immigration officials at the Islamabad airport trying to board a Dubai-bound flight. However, the former cop, again, went missing after eluding law enforcement agencies. He finally appeared before the apex court on March 21, 2018, and was arrested on the directives of former chief justice Mian Saqib Nisar.

Published in Daily Times, February 2^nd 2019.