Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court office has fixed the suo moto case (SMC) over torturing a minor servant Tayyaba by the wife of Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ), Raja Khuram Ali Khan, for hearing on January 6 (today).

The top court has also issued notices to the Advocate General Islamabad, the Deputy Inspector General Islamabad, the Senior Superintendent of Police and ASJ’s wife Maheen Zafar.

The top court also directed the officials summoned to produce the relevant record. It further directed to ensure the production of the victim and her parents and the near relatives mentioned in the record.

The top court further directed the District and Sessions Judge Islamabad West, Atta Rabbani, to ensure the production of the Record and Proceedings of the case in the sessions court. The Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mian Saqib Nisar, a day ago, took cognizance of the matter and directed the registrar Islamabad High Court (IHC) to submit a report before the top court.

On submission of tjr report in a sealed envelope, the chief justice ordered to fix the matter in court on January 6 (today).

Meanwhile six human rights activists from Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar moved a constitutional petition in the Supreme Court requesting it to take disciplinary action against the ASJ Islamabad Raja Khurram who violated the law by employing a minor Tayyaba and torturing her.

Human Rights activist and senior lawyer Asma Jahangir moved a petition on behalf of the respondents stating that the human rights ministry and the Benazir Bhutto Crisis Centre, who had received information from neighbours and domestic helpers in the neighborhood, an FIR was lodged ay I-9 Police Station regarding the illegal confinement and torture of minor Tayyaba.

It further stated that in pursuit of the FIR the police raided the house of ASJ Khurram and recovered and produced her before the Assistant Commissioner Potohar, Nishaa Ishtiak, who recorded the statement of the minor whereby she confessed that she had been regularly abused and tortured by the ASJ’s wife, Maheen Zafar.

On the next day, the wife was granted a pre-arrest bail from the court of another ASJ West Islamabad, Raja Asif Mehmood Khan, and on the same day one another ASJ Atta Rabbani, sent a court order to recover minor Tayyaba from the crisis centre. On the argument, the ASJ then threated the law officer of the crisis centre that an FIR would be lodged against all those working at the centre unless the minor was not produced.

“A number of law officers of the Crisis Centre along with the child Tayyaba went to the session courts where a number of lawyers did not allow them to accompany the minor in the sessions court. The atmosphere was threatening and hostile and the law officers were accused that they were tarnishing the image of the judiciary and hence had no right to practice law,” the petition stated. The minor was handed over to the parents through the back door after a compromise document produced in the court between the parents of the child Tayyaba and the ASJ’s wife, it said.

The court handed over the minor without any proper investigation which is illegal and smacked of malafide intentions by ASJ Atta Rabbani, who was dealing with the matter, the petition added.

“It is very clear that influence had been used in this case to cover up a crime or to brush aside an incident that may or may not have occurred,” the petition stated. The petition contended that it was a case of misuse of power, extending impunity to those who can manipulate the system and could be a case of a gross criminal act by Maheen, the wife of the ASJ. The activists made ASJ Raja Khurram Ali Khan, his wife Maheen Zafar, ASJ Atta Rabbani and Interior Ministry respondents in the matter.