Govt to fight Nazim Jokhio’s case if family agrees to ‘compromise’: Mazari

ISLAMABAD: The federal government on Monday said it would fight the case of Nazim Jokhio if the family agreed to a "compromise" with suspect PPP MPA Jam Awais.

Nazim Jokhio's tortured body was found on November 3 last year in Jam Awais' farmhouse in Karachi's Malir area a day after he filmed a group of foreigners hunting endangered houbara bustard in his Achar Salaar village in Thatta.

According to Afzal Jokhio, brother of the deceased, Nazim made a video of a road that was blocked by foreigners who had come for hunting of houbara bustards. "Nazim involved in a verbal spat with a man in a car who snatched his cellphone. Nazim then made another video that went viral on the social media.”

He said Sindh Assembly Member Jam Awais and his personal secretary were involved in the murder of his brother. Subsequently, several people, including Awais, were named in the FIR. On Monday, the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights summoned IGP Sindh and expressed its displeasure over his alleged disinterest in the case as he did not attend the session.

Other police officials attending the session told the committee that MPA Awais had been arrested in the case and Nazim's brother had named three officials and he wanted to carry out out the investigation from them. They confirmed that Nazim was tortured and beaten, adding that six suspects had been arrested till now and the "real murderers" would be arrested soon.

The police officials, too, said if the victim's relative agreed to a "compromise", "we will be in the court".

Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari said that when MPA or MNAs are involved in a case, then the IGP Sindh should appear, adding that the Sindh Police appeared to be failing in the case.

Mazari said the federal government had directed the Sindh Police to protect the family of Nazim, adding that the state will fight the case on behalf of Nazim's family if they agreed to "compromise".

"If Nazim Jokhio's family compromises, the state will take up the case and fight it... The case of Qandil Baloch is before us all," she added. Meanwhile, PTI Senator Saifullah Abro told the committee that PPP MPA Jam Awais and MNA Jam Abdul Karim had invited guests from a Gulf country. "Only birds are not hunted in Sindh," he taunted.

He demanded that the activities of Arab guests should be brought before the committee for discussion. "One feels ashamed by the activities of them [Arab guests]... where they are invited, they commit shameful acts," he told the committee. Abro said hundreds of such killings take place in Sindh, adding that the FIR was only registered when the victim's family staged a sit-in on the National Highway with Nazim’s body.