As each month passes by, I am more and more convinced that a “justice” system copied from the British is unworkable in Pakistan. I know about the corrupt British judiciary – yes I know, all you Pakistanis are brainwashed into thinking it’s the “standard”. I would prefer a true justice system that works for all Pakistanis and particularly for Patriots.
At almost every step of this struggle to get a modicum of justice in the courts, attempts have been made to thwart us. This debacle continues in the Sessions Court.
From a national security point of view, this is one of the most important cases in Pakistan’s history. Yet from the silence of the cowardly and supine media in Pakistan, you would not know it.
In August 2023, the Islamabad High Court accepted our appeal that a trial should proceed against those Accused at Ramada by Wyndham, where my brother Farooq was assassinated, and against three Islamabad Police officers. The High Court acceded to the request that Tahir Abbas Sipra should not hear the case – from my point of view, his machinations had already been revealed. Clearly the High Court agreed.
So we were assigned the Additional District and Sessions Judge Sikandar Khan for the private complaint.
There was silence for almost a month from the Sessions court. Then Judge Sikandar Khan’s first complaint was that he didn’t “understand” the High Court Order. So, he wanted “arguments” – another month was spent on this. Apparently the following remarks of the Honourable High Court Judge were problematic for him: “the impugned order, dated 22.10.2022, is not sustainable. The learned court [of Sipra] erred in concluding that sufficient material was not available to proceed further..” and “Consequently, the impugned order, dated 22.10.2022, is hereby set-aside by remanding the matter to the learned trial court for further proceedings in accordance with the law.” They seemed quite clear to us (I have added in the italics and bold to highlight to those who have difficulty with understanding English) – including the Accused who all largely turned up to the very first hearing and without notices!
After “arguments” were heard, he began to issue notices. The defence lawyer had tried to argue that notices (i.e. official court process) was not needed.
Judge Sikandar Khan claimed he wanted “to get to the truth”. Good, I thought. So do we. We have no desire to have innocents executed but those guilty – the Accused – should receive the death penalty. On that, there is no compromise. They sealed their fate when they chose to sell their souls to the devil to kill a Pakistani-Kashmiri Patriot.
I am not naïve. I know what power these judges have at their disposal. So how was it that it took SEVEN months to ensure that all the Accused had attended and paid their bond? I questioned this in a previous article – now others too have raised eyebrows at the length of time. The deference shown by a Judge to an Accused is worrying – at one point he referred to only the Ramada Hotel Owner as ‘sahib’ – as my lawyer pointed out, he was an Accused, and no special privileges were owed to one accused of a heinous crime. Why were court processes not used? Why was no excuse for non-attendance ever questioned? The Court did not even notice when someone “stood in” for Abbas Gul at the outset.
On one occasion, Judge Sikandar Khan bizarrely started proceedings by saying there was no need for Farooq’s mother to be present. My mother is 75 years old and she attends every court appearance out of choice. On 16th March 2022, she lost her only son. When she told him this, he bizarrely continued to elaborate and pressure her – if he was in this situation, his mother would not be expected to attend as it would be too burdensome. Well, perhaps Judge Sikandar Khan would remember that the burden has been largely through his own shenanigans and delays in procuring justice for Farooq’s elderly mother. And just perhaps his mother feels differently about him than my mother felt about Farooq?
During these court appearances, he has more often than not sided with the Accused. Their non-attendance and refusal to pay bonds as per his orders was met with simply repeated orders. Did he not expect his orders to be respected? Clear lies from their lawyer were never challenged or addressed. His court was abused by the Accused and their lawyer repeatedly but there was no punishment. Instead, Farooq’s mother has been harangued in Court and his two sisters threatened with contempt for daring to speak when the other side lied and took liberties.
The High Court Order had never been challenged – the Accused had a legal right to appeal it. They did not. Judge Sikandar Khan had issued notices and the court collected bonds. Surely the trial would now start?
No of course not. There were more farcical events to come.
The Magistrate had not accepted the police demand to close the state case and once notices had been issued over the private complaint, had passed it to the Sessions Judge Azam Khan in November 2023 who had transferred it to the judge handling the private complaint – one of the few logical processes in these courts.
Last year, Judge Sikandar Khan claimed, he needed to “get rid” of the state case. An interesting choice of words. Then in February 2024, having had the state case for several months, he decided that it needed “arguments” as to what the Magistrate meant! If he had felt Magistrate Gondal had not issued a “clear” order, why not ask for a clarification in November 2023? It was accepted by all that the state case had been transferred – after all, the Magistrate only had two options – to accept the Police argument and close the state case or reject the police request. He did the latter. His actual quote was this: “In the interest of justice this cancellation report be respectfully placed before the Worthy District and Sessions Judge West-Islamabad..”. No normal individual could claim he had accepted closure of the state case. His intention was crystal clear to everyone but Sikandar Khan.
On Sikandar Khan’s latest judgement – released only last week but signed off as being on 27th May 2024, he says that the Magistrate forwarded “without hearing arguments”. This is blatantly untrue. He then contends that the “admitted position is that the complainant as well as the prosecution is not satisfied with the order dated 14.11.2023 and want remand of the matter to the learned Judicial Magistrate Section-30 for deciding the matter afresh”. This is also not true. These are weasel words from a weasel judge. He goes on “then the Learned Judge should have taken any of the steps …should have forwarded the case to the Court of Sessions for trial” (!). The latter step actually happened.
In addition to the above legal games, he accepts a petition from the Accused’s lawyer that they want the private complaint dismissed! So there will be “arguments” on this – again, on a private complaint accepted by the High Court Judge and after Sikandar himself accepted that a trial was needed and issued notices to the Accused!
Now, on the 15th July, I learnt that due to Ashura that the court date on 16th July 2024 has been cancelled. Am I expected to believe that an annual event and public holiday is not known by a senior judge? After everything else he has done?
I have heard unconfirmed reports that Sikandar Khan has complained of “pressure” and I also hear that he has been “promoted” – I am not sure what he did to merit a promotion. Was the delay in proceedings of something that he should be proud? Yet could he have made Pakistani Judiciary look more foolish?
I am well aware that no-one wanted this case. It was a “hot potato” so to speak. In his first broadcast after Independence, Quaid-e-Azam said “The creation of the new State has placed a tremendous responsibility on the citizens of Pakistan. It gives them an opportunity to demonstrate to the world how can a nation, containing many elements, …work for the betterment of all its citizens, irrespective of caste or creed.” I remind the Pakistani Judiciary of this now – you are here to serve the citizens of Pakistan and if you cannot uphold justice for even your own Patriots, what purpose does this Country serve?
Dr Rehiana Ali is a Cambridge-educated Consultant Neurologist and has a PhD from Imperial College London. Her beloved brother Farooq, a Biochemistry postgraduate of Imperial College London, was a Patriotic Pakistani-Kashmiri and a freelance journalist and political intellectual. His family allege he was assassinated at Ramada by Wyndham on 11 – 12th March 2022 – the case is currently at the Sessions Court in West Islamabad. She stood as an Independent Parliamentary Candidate for Bradford South in the UK Elections on 4th July 2024. She can be followed on X @rehiana1980 and the social media campaign led by her sister Yasmin can be followed @Justice4Farooq
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Views expressed in this Op-ed and following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the TLTP.
