Maid’s torture: NA panel wants action against judge

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly Standing Committee on Human Rights Thursday expressed grave concern over the torture of underage maid Rizwana allegedly by the wife of a civil judge and urged the Ministry of Law and Justice to immediately initiate the process for removal of the civil judge from service.

Dr Mehreen Razzaq Bhutto chaired the committee meeting here.

The committee was briefly apprised by the Chairperson National Commission on the Rights of Children (NCRC) about the unfortunate incident. She informed the committee that the incident happened on 24th July and was reported in the media after two days. Initially, the FIR was very weak; however, on the basis of medico-legal report, some more sections were added to the FIR to further strengthen the case.

The ICT police also endorsed the statement of the NCRC chairperson.

Referring to Articles No. 3, 11, 23, 25-A, 35 and 37 (a) of the Constitution, Dr Mehreen Razzaq Bhutto held that the unfortunate incident was a clear violation of human rights and, therefore, there was a need to give maximum punishment to those responsible. She urged the Ministry of Law and Justice to play their role as per Judicial Code of Conduct, take all possible measures for the punitive action(s) against the civil judge and submit report to the committee.

The committee directed the DIG police to undertake an impartial inquiry, ignoring all sorts of pressures, finalize the report and submit it to the committee at the earliest possible.

The chairperson further directed the Ministry of Human Rights to give their input on the draft policy prepared by the Child Rights Commission, and submit the same to the committee in the next meeting on 7th August.The committee also expressed displeasure over the non-attendance of meeting by the secretary law and justice and held that such a non-serious and unprofessional attitude exhibited by the secretary law amounted to a breach of the Privileges of the Committee as well as the Parliament and unanimously decided that such a practice will not be tolerated in future.