KARACHI: The high court of Sindh overturned the whole-life sentences of four of the five men convicted in the 2013 murder of Parveen Rehman, director of a renowned social programme that works on development issues in the most impoverished neighbourhoods of Karachi, due to a lack of evidence.
The convicts — Ayaz and Raheem Swati, Amjad Hussain, and Ahmad Khan — won an appeal against a December 2021 judgement, issued after a hiatus of nearly eight years and prevented them from ever being released, issued by an anti-terrorism court in the port city.
The fifth convict, Imran Swati, was found guilty of abetting the sensational broad day light murder and given seven years in prison.
Sindh High Court set aside an antiterrorism court ruling and acquits all accused of Perveen Rehman Murder, a high-profile case in which real culprits could be arrested after several coverups, a fake encounter and arrests.
ATC had awarded accused double-death penalty
— Naimat Khan (@NKMalazai) November 21, 2022
In its judgement, a two-judge bench of the high court bought the defense that none of the accused had been charged with “actually murdering” Rehman. Instead, the charges pertain to “planning, instigating and, in effect, abetting” the killing, the jury noted.
“We have found many doubts concerning the appellant’s involvement in the murder of the deceased,” the court order read.
Following the issuance of the order, the bench asked the authorities to release the men if they weren’t wanted in any other case.
Gunmen shot and killed Rehman in March 2013 while she was on her way home from work, ending her 28-year-long career spent advocating for land and basic services rights for the underprivileged.
Orangi Pilot Project (OPP), the programme Rehman headed, has worked with slum dwellers to develop low-lying homes in Orangi Town — the 8,000-acre (3,200-hectare) neighbourhood widely cited as Asia’s largest slum — since 1982.
Rehman had also been documenting land use in and around Karachi, which some believe may have angered local land-grabbing criminal groups.
In 2020, a joint investigation team (JIT) informed the Supreme Court the motive behind her murder was land grabbing.
“The motive behind her murder was to grab the OPP office land. The accused were [ethnic] Pashtun and could not tolerate a Bihari [refugees from the present-day Indian state of Bihar] woman heading a major organisation in the predominantly Pashtun and Afghan locality,” according to the investigation report submitted to the top court.
The report also said the investigation team did not find any evidence suggesting the rumoured involvement of some real estate tycoon in the murder.
“She had neither named any influential person as being a threat to her nor had she been involved in a dispute with anyone except her neighbour, Raheem Swati,” the report read.
How will the murderer whosoever, known or unknown, escape one inescapable justice? Alimighty’s justice.
Justice for Parveen Rehman.Sindh Govt Should arrest these pashtuns they destroyed peace of karachi like wazirstan.