Sherry points out loopholes in Dr Shazia’s rape probe

* PPPP leader wants government to explain inaction

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: Sherry Rehman, an opposition member of the National Assembly (MNA), on Thursday raised several questions in Dr Shazia rape case and observed that the government had failed to provide justice to the victim.

In a statement, Ms Rehman, who belongs to the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP), said Section 173 of the Pakistan Criminal Procedure Code, 1898, required the police to complete the investigation of a crime without unnecessary delay. She asked why the police had not completed the investigation of the case and submitted the challan before the court even after the passage of 50 days of the incident. Ms Rehman asked the government to explain the delay in the submission of the inquiry report into the case conducted by a Balochistan High Court judge.

The woman MNA also expressed reservation on the statement of the Inter Services Public Relations spokesman, who she said had tried to understate the gravity of the matter by calling it “an insignificant” incident. “Is a woman’s life and honour so insignificant that her rape by four alleged officials of the PPL and DSG security apparatus not be taken seriously?”

Ms Rehman asked why Dr Shazia was not taken directly to Karachi for medical examination. She said the PPL officials had forced the woman doctor to sign a document that she would not report the incident to the police. Ms Rehman also questioned why Dr Shazia was not allowed to meet her family members until two days after the incident.

“Why did General Musharraf pronounce Captain Hammad, one of the accused in the case, innocent before the judicial enquiry was completed?” she said. “It is being said that Dr Shazia could not identify the culprits from the 11 men presented before her for voice identification. How is anyone supposed to identify a voice heard probably only once and that too after the passage of forty days,” she added.

The PPPP MNA alleged that all evidence related to the case had been destroyed before the DNA test could be carried out. She demanded a public trial of the people who had reportedly destroyed all the evidence from the place of the incident.

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