LAHORE: A lawyer has approached the Superior Court of Lahore, seeking a directive for the Punjab government to establish a judicial commission on the death in custody of the mentally ill Salahuddin Ayubi and to make public investigation reports of all extrajudicial killings occurred during the last four years.
"Deprivation of liberty, extrajudicial executions and human rights violations have become a registered trademark of the Punjab police," said lawyer Nadeem Sarwar in a pro bono petition filed on Friday.
The federal ministry of human rights, the chief secretary of Punjab, the police inspector general and the Bahawalpur regional police officer have been answered in the petition.
The petitioner claimed that Ayubi died in the custody of Rahim Yar Khan's police and that a post-mortem report demonstrated brutal torture on his body. A few days later, he said, another citizen, Amir, was killed by the North Cantonment de Lahore police while in custody.
The lawyer said that these incidents of brutality caused a wave of fear and terror among citizens and became a matter of great public importance. Therefore, he argued, an investigation commission or committee was urgently required under the "Punjab Investigative Courts Ordinance of 1969".
He asked the court to order the defendants to publish investigative reports of all extrajudicial killings and deaths in custody from 2015 to date and the measures taken against police officers involved in these incidents.
In addition, he asked the court to order that the trial of police officers involved in the latest killings be carried out in model courts.
The lawyer alleged that the provincial government be ordered to initiate legislative measures of domestic law that criminalize torture to hold the police accountable for illegal acts.
Posted in Dawn, September 7, 2019
Source: https://www.dawn.com/news/1503975/lhc-moved-to-probe-extra-judicial-killings
