A lady lawyer of Capital District Bar urged the top court on Saturday to exercise its suo-motu jurisdiction over gruesome incident that not only crumbled modesty of a woman survivor on the Sialkot-Lahore Motorway where recently felons committed heinous crime of rape in presence of the survivor’s two children but has also raised eye brows over priorities of people at the helm of affairs who apparently failed to get structural changes on war footing in the police department.
Filing the plea before Supreme Court, advocate High Court Mariam Farid Khwaja along with her colleague advocate Usama Khawar submitted that a horrible, remorseful and regretful incident occurred on Sialkot-Lahore Motorway has shaken the entire nation and has brought to the forefront miseries of females of Pakistan who are utterly unsafe from criminals and miscreants all Pakistan.
Applicants claimed, “The incident has again proved that the Police and other law enforcement agencies do not have the capability and neither the willpower to protect those who are the most vulnerable in this society”.
They added the incident has also shown that the federal government, provincial government and law enforcement agencies have failed to uphold the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution of Pakistan, 1973.
Substantiating their claim for invoking top court suo-motu jurisdiction, applicants submitted that the incident has caused immense fear and insecurity in the society especially the women who are 48.76 per cent of the country’s population.
They submitted that such incident occurred on the night of Wednesday on September 9 at around 1am when a lady was travelling with her young children as her car was not moving on due to shortage of fuel in the vehicle. They said that the woman gave call to police for rescue but it didn’t turn up. Meanwhile, robbers approached her who on gunpoint, in front of her children tortured and raped.
“Yet the government and the protectors of the citizens, Police have not only failed to prevent the said incident; they are bent upon showing that they are helpless themselves,” the applicants maintained.
They prayed the court to assign responsibility and liability to persons, including government officials, as well as government departments, for failing to protect the lady and her family and failing to ensure that all due precautions are taken against criminal activity in the area.
It is also prayed to assign responsibility and liability of persons, including police higher-ups for failing to provide effective mechanism or taking all necessary measures for protecting the life and dignity of its citizens.
While seeking court directives for administrative action against negligence of the people at helm of affairs the applicants urged the top court to initiate and pursue criminal proceedings against the responsible and liable persons. They also prayed to formulate guidelines for a safe policing, police reforms and recommendations for avoidance of such incidents amid measures for effective enforcement of the relevant laws in the country.
