The Senate Functional Committee on Human Rights on Monday deferred the consideration of Faisalabad's Sonia Naz rape case till the completion of inquiry underway, at the moment.
The committee, however, adopted a resolution asking the government to honour the victim's reservations over the nomination of one-man panel, comprising District and Sessions Judge Faisalabad.
"We hope the government would sympathetically look into the request of the victim for the change of panel to meet the requirements of justice," Senator S. M. Zafar, chairman of the committee, observed in his ruling.
He also directed the secretary interior to submit the inquiry report to the committee after its completion. It is to mention here that that Sonia Naz has expressed her reservations over the nomination of DSJ Faisalabad, stating that he was a close relative of the alleged DSP, Khalid Adbdullah, prime accused of the case.
Senator Zafar in his opening remarks stated that rape was the worst type of torture against women giving the victim a lifelong agony and trauma.
He urged the government to take notice of the situation, expressing the concerns of the committee as human rights violation incidents had increased alarmingly in the recent past especially involving the government agencies.
The deliberations were delayed on the request of the interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah, who briefed the committee with background of the case and requested to delay its deliberations since the matter was subjudice as Supreme Court-appointed Tribunal was in the process of conducting inquiry.
"We will be careful of the status of the case and will not intervene in the jurisdictions of the court while discussing the case," the committee chairman stated.
"Police should have registered the FIR after the incident was reported," S M Zafar maintained.
The interior secretary told the committee that besides judicial, an administrative enquiry had also been ordered forming a two-man team comprising DIG investigations Punjab, Zafar Qureshi and Saad Bharwana, SO investigations, Lahore. Ms Naz had recorded her statement before them and the enquiry would be complete by Tuesday, the interior secretary said. Senator Farhatullah Babar said that it was the responsibility of the Parliament more than any other institutions of the country.
He also criticised the interior secretary for not producing the victim before the committee to tell her side of the story. Senator Babar also proposed a resolution in order to check the state agencies' authority to lift people without assigning any reasons and keeping them in custody, but the chairman delayed the consideration of resolution till next meeting.
APP ADDS: Alleged rape victim Sonia Naz on Monday filed a petition to the Supreme Court (SC) seeking suspension of judicial inquiry into the case by Faisalabad Additional District and Sessions Judge Abdul Waheed Khan.
The Chief Justice of the Lahore High Court had ordered the inquiry on Monday.
Sonia Naz, in the petition filed through her counsel Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta, said the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Punjab already constituted an inquiry and she had appeared before the inquiry officer on September 1 for recording her statement. She said findings of the inquiry ordered by IGP would be presented before the Supreme Court as per directive issued by the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry after he took suo moto notice of the case.
The petitioner pointed out the Chief Justice has already directed Chief Secretary and Inspector General of Police Punjab to submit a comprehensive report in her case within ten days.
"In view of the suo moto notice taken by the Honourable Supreme Court any other inquiry by a judicial tribunal at this stage will damage the cause of justice and will seriously prejudice the case of the petitioner," the petitioner said.
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