Expressing dismay over acquittal of all accused in Perveen Rahman murder case, Pasban Democratic Party (PDP) Chairman Altaf Shakoor said that faulty investigation due to corrupt police and weak prosecution result in easy acquittal of accused in majority of the cases of serious crimes.
He said previous day, the Sindh High Court (SHC) acquitted all five men sentenced in the murder case of renowned rights activist Perveen Rahman — who was shot dead in the metropolis in 2013 — citing a lack of evidence.
The development came around nine months after an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi sentenced four of the accused, namely Abdul Raheem Swati, Ahmed Khan, Amjad Hussain Khan and Ayaz Swati, to life imprisonment and sent the fifth accused, Imran Swati, to jail for seven years.
The trial court’s verdict, which was issued after eight long years of proceedings, was subsequently challenged in the high court.
In its order, a two-member SHC bench, comprising Justice KK Agha and Justice Zulfiqar Ali Sangi, observed that none of the accused had been charged with “actually murdering” Rahman. Instead, the court said, the accused were charged with “planning, instigating and in effect abetting the murder”.
Altaf Shakoor regretted that our policing system is corrupt from top to bottom. In most of the cases they don’t conduct in investigation on scientist lines and leave loopholes that eventually benefit the accused.
To make things worse our prosecution system is also marred with corruption and inefficiency.
Mostly the prosecutors have political connection and they are handpicked on the basis of their political affiliation instead of their professional competency.
He said these prosecutors hardly take efforts in their cases and poor investigation coupled with shoddy prosecution directly benefits the accused.
