Murder of Parveen Rehman JIT submits interim report to Supreme Court

The Joint Investigation Team (JIT) constituted to probe murder of social worker Parveen Rehman submitted its interim report to the Supreme Court on Wednesday. Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed, heading a three-judge bench, observed that it is "an embarrassment for the Sindh government as well as the court that still the real culprits could not be identified." He said that they would not let this matter rest. "We will keep our eyes on the JIT," he added.
On February 28, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan had filed a petition against the Sindh government and others for failing to arrest the culprit behind the murder of Rehman, the director of Orangi Pilot Project. The petition stated that there were "material mistakes made by the initial investigating officer as well as the concerned SHO which adversely affected the merits of investigation."
The court, therefore, had directed the government of Sindh to constitute a new JIT. The committee consists of official from police, intelligence agencies, Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), Rangers and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). The head of the JIT sought three weeks to finalize the investigation.
According to the JIT report, Rehman's murder was truly a conspiracy hatched by those threatened by her efforts to highlight the issue of land grabbing and her championing of the Goth Abad Scheme in Sindh's capital.
The JIT head informed the bench that it wanted to "examine the context of a wider motive behind the killing before the submission of a final report in which it will attempt to find a concrete link between the work that Rehman was doing and the elements or forces that were most affected and impacted by her efforts."