The Supreme Court on Monday transferred the investigation of a case involving murder of a Defence Housing Authority's security guard by the Bahria Town men to the Director General Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), showing displeasure over the performance of Inspector General Islamabad Police in the case.
A three-bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry while hearing the case issued directives to DG FIA Javed Iqbal to submit instigation report of the case within three weeks. "We are not satisfied with the report prepared by Joint Investigation Team (JIT) of IGP, therefore, in the interest of justice and logical conclusion of the murder of security guard, Fayyaz Ahmad, we transferred the case to DG FIA," the bench said in its written order.
Hamid Khan appeared before the court to defend Malik Riaz, owner of Bahria Town, who had paid Rs 26 million to Shamroza Bibi, widow of Fayyaz, as compensation. "Was it diyyat?" the court asked. "No, it was financial assistance," was the reply of Hamid Khan. "It is good, but we are well aware of the fact that normally no one extend such huge amount in such cases, while Malik Riaz was not even accused in the case. We want to know the truth behind this generosity," Justice Tariq Pervez asked.
The court observed that a trial court judge misunderstood the case and gave a controversial verdict. "Don't rely on this judgement," chief justice asked Sardar Ishaq, the lawyer of the two accused in the case. "If you want to finish the case, we would dispose of the same with observations that in murder of a poor security guard, the law enforcement agencies and the courts failed to trace the reason behind the brutality."
Islamabad IGP Bani Amin Khan told the court that he conducted inquiry and found 15 officers guilty for not investigating the case in transparent manners. He said while taking administrative action, he dismissed nine station house officers (SHOs) and recommended suspension of six Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSPs) to the government for their nontransparent conduct. He said he also found that many people were booked in the case falsely, thus he withdrew the cases against them. "If all cases were registered falsely then what your inquiry say about this murder," the court inquired. To this, Amin could not satisfy the court. The court observed that the IGP was also deserved the same treatment for which he dismissed other officers.
Fayaz Ahmad was murdered in 2009 and the Supreme Court took suo motu notice on an appeal published in a newspaper by Ahmad's father. Subsequent proceedings opened a new can of worms, after Ahmad's brother Tahir told the court that he did not know who published the appeals as his father had already passed away.
The appeal was addressed to the chief justice by one Raja Riasat, saying that his son Fayyaz Ahmad was murdered nearly a year ago and the alleged murderer, Shafiqur Rehman, the owner of Allied Developers, had been released on bail. Tariq Mehmood, counsel for Shafiqur Rehman, had informed the court accusing real estate tycoon Malik Riaz of financing the newspaper appeals. He alleged that Riaz wanted to acquire Rehman's land for Bahria Town but was facing resistance, which is why he came up with the idea of an appeal.