Five acquitted in rights activist’s murder
Perween Rahman’s family to challenge Sindh HC verdict in Supreme Court
The Sindh High Court (SHC) yesterday acquitted five people sentenced for life in the murder case of a renowned rights activist, a social worker and Director of the Orangi Pilot Project (OPP), Perween Rahman.
Rahman was shot dead in Karachi on March 13, 2013 while on way to her office.
An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) had in December 2021 awarded life imprisonment to four people in the high-profile murder case.
Those convicted by the ATC included Abdul Raheem Swati and three co-accused — Ayaz Swati, Amjad Hussain Khan and Ahmed Khan alias Pappu Kashmiri. The fifth accused, Imran Swati was sent to jail for seven years.
The ATC order was challenged in the SHC which in its verdict yesterday observed that the police failed to produce sufficient evidence and none of the accused had been charged with “actually murdering” Perween Rahman.
Perween Rahman had identified Abdul Raheem Swati as a ‘land grabber and extortionist’ who, according to her, wanted to illegally occupy the OPP land.
The police had included her interview as a charge sheet against the appellants. The two-member SHC bench, comprising Justice KK Agha and Justice Zulfiqar Ali Sangi, however admitted the plea of the appellants’ lawyer that the interview, which she gave in 2011 and was aired after her murder, was inadmissible evidence. The court concluded that it should be excluded from the case.
The high court ordered the release of all the five who had appealed against the verdict of the ATC. “The appellants are entitled to the benefit of the doubt as a matter of right as opposed to concession and in this case, as mentioned above we have found many doubts concerning the appellants’ involvement in the murder of the deceased,” the order said.
Family shocked
Perween Rahman’s family members have expressed shock and disappointment over the release of the five people charged by the ATC. Her sister Aquila Ismail said she failed to understand how the police failed to prepare a strong evidence.
This raises serious questions over prosecution and we have decided to move an appeal in the Supreme Court against the acquittal, she said.