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Friday March 29, 2024

Anti-terror lawyer’s wife replies to show-cause notice

‘Maroof on ex-Pakistan leave, not absent’

By Zaib Azkaar Hussain
May 05, 2015
Karachi
The wife of Special Public Prosecutor Abdul Maroof has declared that his husband was not absent from duty but on ‘Ex-Pakistan Leave’ (EPL).
She had said this in reply to the show-cause notice issued to his husband through newspapers.
The notice had directed Maroof to appear in seven days, but his wife had approached the Sindh chief secretary and submitted a reply that her husband’s life was in danger and he had to leave as not a single step was taken for his protection and safety.
She added that many brave policemen (investigation officers), who had been working with the anti-terror prosecutor, were killed and her husband was also threatened time and again by the terrorists and left the country after getting a proper EPL.
Maroof’s wife underlined that her husband was attacked twice and she herself was under threat and once escape attack by the terrorists.
Advocate Abdul Maroof, who had gained popularity as an anti-terror prosecutor, now is in hot waters as on one hand he cannot come to the country due to the threats on his life and on the other the authorities concerned have turned a deaf ear to his written statement submitted by his wife months back.
The SPP’s spouse claims that certain people, who are jealous of her husband, were hatching a conspiracy against him to deprive him from his job.
She claimed that her husband was being punished for nothing and a show-cause notice issued to her husband by the prosecutor general should be withdrawn.
In August last, Maroof had suddenly left for the US in what appeared to be a move motivated by security concerns.
Known for representing the state in several high-profile terrorism cases, Maroof was served a show-cause notice for “misconduct,” stating that he was deemed “liable to be removed from service”.
Maroof’s wife, submitting the copy of “ex-Pakistan leave” (EPL) order, issued by the law secretary, and other relevant documents said, “My husband was on the hit-list of terrorists and was told this by deputy inspector general CID Karachi and office of Sindh police chief.”
The letter she submitted at the CS office on December 29, 2014 states, “My husband has conducted a large number of cases against terrorists of al-Qaeda, Tehreek-e-Taliban, Lashkar-e-Janghvi, Lyari gang war and other criminals. My husband conducted prosecution of even those cases in which other prosecutors had refused and ran away from the court during proceedings and got themselves admitted in hospitals, and in Wali Babar murder case when all prosecutors refused to conduct prosecution of the case, my husband conducted the trial and finally at the time of final arguments the case was transferred to interior Sindh for the security purpose.”
She mentioned that her husband was attacked on November 21, 2013 by the terrorists and when Maroof fired back the assailant escaped in injured condition. The national and international media reported the incident, added.
She went on saying that her house was attacked again on April 7, 2014 and the brother of her husband was killed on April 12, 2014 by the terrorists.