- Prosecutors reluctant to fight the case due to security concerns, lack of expertise
Important records related to the Salmaan Taseer murder case mysteriously disappeared from the office of the Attorney General (AG) in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) after the appeal of Mumtaz Qadri – Taseer’s self-confessed killer – was fixed for hearing last week.
Sources in the AG office said that after the case was fixed before the IHC division bench, it was found that the file that contained Qadri’s appeal, his conviction order, police reports, and important notes from the prosecutor, was not in their records. The case files were reportedly present in the records during 2011 and 2012, the two years when the case was heard. Local media reported that the case file had allegedly been taken by someone to help study the case, and is yet to be returned.
Subsequently, at the last hearing of the case on Jan 27, 2015, prosecutors had no record related to the case. The likelihood of the file being reconstructed or found before the next hearing on February 3, 2015, is slim at best. A delay in the prosecutions efforts against Qadri is expected. The Attorney General, or his office, is yet to comment on the issue.
The law officer deputed to handle cases in Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui’s court had requested the bench to serve a notice on the AG to appoint a dedicated prosecutor for the Taseer’s murder case.
Law officers and IHC officials have stated that the file can be reconstructed from copies available on the records kept by the judiciary and the police.
This is not the first problem to haunt the Taseer case. Only a handful of days ago, the fact that law officers are reluctant to take the case became evident. None of the prosecutors assigned to fight against Qadri were willing or agreeing to show up in court. Moreover, many were of the view that they did not have the expertise required to deal with a criminal case of this nature.
The gravity of the situation can be gauged from the fact that in 2011 a special judge from the Anti-Terrorism Court that convicted Qadri fled the country after his life was repeatedly threatened for simply presiding over the case.