The directions were given by a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja and Justice Sh Azmat Saeed while hearing a suo motu case regarding the killing in Karachi.
The apex court also directed the Rangers to compensate the family of the deceased taxi driver.
During the course of proceeding Shahid Anwar Bajwa, counsel for Rangers, appeared before the court and apprised that four Rangers allegedly involved in the incident had been taken into custody and that an investigation was underway.
The Chief Justice remarked that it was the second identical incident of firing by Rangers in which an innocent person lost his life. He stated that Rangers have the right to stop and search people but not to kill them.
He stated the first incident took place in Faisal Colony, Karachi where Rangers shot a person to death when he did not stop his car and now this incident has taken place.
Bajwa expressed his excuse and assured the bench that such incidents would not occur in future. The Chief Justice remarked that with excuses a person could not come to life again or a woman could not get her husband back.
The CJ brushed aside the expression that the courts were against law enforcement agencies.
Justice Jawwad questioned that the deceased's wife had lodged an FIR but why had the Director General Rangers not done so.
Bajwa further apprised the court that both the matters of killing by the Rangers were being heard by the Trial Courts. Later, the court adjourned further hearing of the case till July 26.
It is to mention here that a taxi driver Murid Abbas was shot to death by Rangers in Karachi while he was going to get medicines for his sick child.
The rangers signaled Abbas to stop but he did not, on which they opened fire on him, resulting in his death. The Chief Justice took suo motu of the incident on Thursday.
Rangers troops patrol Karachi and its surroundings to combat routine ethnic, political and extremist violence in the city.
Human rights activists complain that the Rangers force, established for combat and border duty, is neither equipped nor trained for civilian areas.
Tuesday’s was the second such incident in recent weeks as last month another unarmed civilian was killed by Rangers in Shah Faisal Colony for the same reason.
The paramilitary force had to face extreme public backlash in 2011 when local TV channels aired footage of Rangers personnel shooting dead Sarfaraz Shah, an unarmed civilian, at point blank range in a public park in Karachi.
A local court subsequently found one paramilitary soldier guilty of murder and sentenced him to death and handed life terms to five other soldiers and a civilian for their involvement in Shah's killing.
The case had marked the first time that a civilian court in Pakistan had sentenced to death a serving member of the paramilitary force.
link: http://dawn.com/news/1030362/rangers-do-not-have-the-right-to-kill-people-sc
No comments:
Post a Comment