Observer Report
Islamabad
The Supreme Court on Tuesday, while hearing a case pertaining to the 2013 murder of social worker Parween Rehman, admonished law enforcement agencies, saying they seemed “helpless before land and water mafias”.
“This matter is turning into a mystery,” remarked Justice Ijazul Ahsan, who was part of the bench. “Six years have gone by already, what are the law enforcement agencies doing?” The three-member bench, headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial, asked Babar Bakht Qureshi, who is heading the joint investigation team probing the matter, about the findings of the case. Qureshi said that there were no major developments and urged the court to give the JIT more time to investigate. He told the bench that since the murder happened six years ago, the JIT could not obtain any data through geofencing.
Justice Ahsan told Qureshi that the JIT had been constituted because law enforcement agencies were not doing their job. “What are law enforcement agencies doing since 2013? Are these mafias out of their reach?” asked Justice Ahsan.
“Mafias have killed people who are involved in social work,” said Justice Bandial. The court granted Qureshi two months to wrap up investigation and directed him to submit an interim report in three weeks.
