LHC orders judicial inquiry into Sahiwal killings

15 Feb, 2019

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday ordered a judicial inquiry into the Sahiwal killing incident and to conclude its proceedings within 30 days. The court adjourned to March 05 the proceedings of the petition of the victim Khalil's brother Jalil seeking formation of judicial commission to conduct a transparent probe into the Sahiwal incident in which four people, including a teenage girl, were killed allegedly by Counter-Terrorism Department officials.
The LHC Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Shamim Khan, "Keeping in view the importance of the matter, directed the sessions judge Sahiwal to depute some magistrate (section 30) for conducting the judicial inquiry of the incident whereby Muhammad Khalil, Zeeshan, Nabeela Khalil and Areeba Khalil were killed whereas Muhammad Umair and Jazba Khalil were injured, allegedly at the hands of CTD officials. Earlier a law officer produced the copy of a letter issued by home department Punjab which had not recommended the formation of judicial commission for the time being. The law officer pleaded that the government had decided to wait till the conclusion of joint investigation team's probe and the constitution of judicial commission would be considered if the JIT report was found unsatisfactory.
When asked whether JIT had recorded the statements of the people named on the list given by the court. JIT head, Ijaz Shah, stated that statements of eye witnesses Muhammad Jalil, Muhammad Afzal, Umair Khalil and Dr. Nadeem Abbas had been recorded under section 161 CrPC. The court expressed its displeasure when he was unable to satisfy court about recording of statements of all witnesses. Chief justice LHC remarked that the JIT has not bothered to record statements of all the eye witnesses provided by the LHC, "Is this the way to obey court orders," he continued and added, "The way you are working on the case is sad". Upon which, Ijaz Shah undertook to record the statements of all witnesses who would appear or produce before JIT.

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