ISLAMABAD: The interim Joint Investigation Team (JIT) report in Perveen Rehman murder case has revealed the involvement of Karachi’s land mafia.
The report was submitted in the Supreme Court on Wednesday by a newly constituted JIT comprising police officials, intelligence agencies, Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), Rangers and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
It stated that the members of the JIT were convinced that 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.
After submitting the interim report, the JIT head sought three weeks’ time from the top court to finalise the investigation report. The team told the apex court it wanted to “examine the context of a wider motive behind the killing before the submission of a final report in which it would try to find a concrete link between the Rehman’s work and the elements or forces that were most affected and impacted by her efforts.”
The report was submitted three weeks after the SC said it would closely monitor the progress of the JIT formed nearly five years after the murder of Rehman. On February 28, a three-judge bench, headed by Justice Azmat Saeed Sheikh, heard a petition filed by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan against the Sindh government and others for failing to catch 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.”
Published in Daily Times, March 22nd 2018.
