Tayyaba torture case trial starts at IHC

ISLAMABAD: The Tayyaba torture case, whereby a judge and his wife were accused of allegedly torturing and abusing their 10-year-old housemaid, will be heard on a regular basis by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) from April 28.

Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani, on Thursday, ordered that copies of the prosecution papers be given to the suspect and declared that the court would be hearing the case daily.

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The suspects, Additional District and Sessions Judge Raja Khurram Ali Khan and his wife, Maheen Zafar, were booked after the victim accused them of keeping her in wrongful confinement, burning her hand, beating and detaining her besides threatening her of even worse consequences.

While deciding the jurisdiction of the trial, Justice Aamer Farooq had ordered last month that the trial be conducted at the IHC. The court had also dismissed an application filed by civil society members on the jurisdiction issue, observing the petitioner had no locus standi in the case.

Separately, Justice Kayani also conducted inquiry proceedings against the accused judge.

The IHC had decided to shift the case’s jurisdiction last month in a bid to appease the notion that a fair and impartial trial cannot be held in a subordinate court.

Earlier, on March 8, the Supreme Court (SC) had halted the housemaid’s trial and tasked the IHC with considering a transfer of the case to either another trial court or consider assuming its own jurisdiction in the case.

The counsels for the judge and his wife, Raja Rizwan Abbasi and Sardar Taimur Aslam, respectively, opposed the transfer of trial, saying it would affect the suspects’ right to appeal. They maintained that if the trial was shifted to the high court, the judge would lose two forums of appeal — the district and sessions court and the high court.

Interestingly, the maid and her parents’ counsel, Ilyas Siddiqui, also opposed the move.

On January 2, Judge Raja reached a compromise with Tayyaba’s parents, on the basis of which his wife secured pre-arrest bail the same day.

On January 3, after the victim’s father ‘forgave’ the judge and his wife ‘in the name of God’, ADSJ Atta Rabbani handed over custody of Tayyaba to her parents. Judge Asif Mehmood approved the compromise after the lawyer for the legal guardians, and an uncle of the girl, identified them as the parents and guardians before him.

Judge Mehmood also granted interim bail to the accused judge, who was made an OSD by the IHC in line with the findings of an earlier inquiry.

The SC voiced serious concerns over the compromise, handing over of the child maid and the suspicious role of the counsel with regards to the girls legal guardians. On January 4, the SC took suo motu notice of the matter and overruled the pardon granted to the suspects by exercising parental jurisdiction in the matter.

The police probe into the incident involving brutal torture on the maid has so far pointed out violence and abuse meted out to the victim by the sessions judge’s wife, who himself was accused of employing the minor as maid in the first place.

During formal interrogation, the police said, the judge and his wife denied these allegations.

The IHC will take up the case on April 28.

Source: The Express Tribune