No justice for the poor?

Three months after her husband’s death, Mrs Sumara is still awaiting justice for her husband who was tortured to death by the Islamabad police.
Sumara said that she is being pressurised for reconciliation with her husband’s murderer. “Instead of arresting the accused officer, police officials have been pressurising me and my family to make a deal with officers involved in killing my husband,” she told Pakistan Today on Tuesday.
After her husband Saddat Ali’s murder, the Industrial Area Police registered an FIR against SP Ishaq Warraich, ASP Khalil Ahmed Bhutta, SHO Sabzimandi Asjad Mahmood and three other police officials. However, a joint investigation team gave the SP and SHO a clean chit and placed the blame on ASP Khalil Bhutta and four cops.
Three accused constables and an ASI are on judicial remand, but the police are reluctant to arrest the ASP who supervised the torturing operation. The accused ASP has also been declared a proclaimed offender.
Sources said that the ASP is currently living at the Police Line Headquarters.
“We received information that the offender might be living at the headquarters, but we conducted a raid and couldn’t find him there,” said SP Sardar Sadaqat, who headed the joint investigation team.
Saddat, a carpenter by profession, had been tortured to death on September 29, allegedly by ASP Khalil Bhutta and his subordinates at the Industrial Area Police Station. Saadat was being interrogated in connection with a kidnapping case.
The medical board of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences confirmed that Saadat had died of being tortured.
The Industrial Area Police had to register an FIR (No.367/12) under sections 302 and 342 PPC against the SP and ASP, Sabzi Mandi SHO and the investigation officer of the case. However, the SP and SHO managed to get a clean chit from the investigation team.
The ASP, who had been declared a proclaimed offender, still roams freely. The Senate Committee on Human Right had taken notice of this case and directed the IGP to appear before the committee on January 14.
Last month, Sumara had also lodged an application in the Supreme Court seeking the apex court’s attention against threats she had received from police officers. In the application, she stated that she had received threatening calls and messages from different sources close to the suspected police officers.
“They are threatening to kidnap my children and create fake cases against me and our family friends in Islamabad if I pursue the case and do not agree to a reconciliation,” she said.