Lahore, Jan. 28 (TNS): The apex court on Sunday dissolved the current JIT team, and ordered for the formation of a new one under the leadership of a Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officer.
Moreover, the CJP also barred Zainab’s parents and lawyer from talking to the media, and has directed them to cooperate fully with the police.
The court has also ordered Punjab police to submit the challan of details as early as possible.
A three-member bench began the proceedings by taking up an anchorperson’s allegations, refuted by the government, that the suspect Imran has several bank accounts and is part of an international ring involving government officials.
As the hearing went underway, the video of the anchorperson’s Thursday’s media talk outside the Supreme Court in Islamabad was played.
“You said there is evidence of 37 accounts, please present it,” the chief justice asked the anchorperson.
Appearing before the bench, the anchorperson said several other people are involved in the case, adding that the post-mortem of the victim and DNA tests of suspects were not conducted the right way.
“There’s a coverup,” claimed the anchorperson, and asked the court to inquire from the police where the victim was kept before being killed.
Failing to present a satisfying reply and instead began questioning the chief justice’s own practices, the anchorperson was admonished for levelling baseless allegations.
“Your statements are based on hearsay,” the chief justice remarked, adding that he saw the anchorperson’s show at midnight and called him next morning. “What you said [in your show], you have failed to prove [in court],” the chief justice observed.
The court then ordered the formation of a new joint investigation team (JIT), headed by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Director General Bashir Memon, to investigate the anchorperson’s claims.
The Supreme Court also barred Muhammad Amin ─ the father of seven-year-old Zainab who was raped and murdered in Kasur earlier this month ─ and his lawyer from holding further press conferences.
Chief Justice Saqib Nisar barred Amin and his lawyer from speaking to the press while presiding over a three-member apex bench, which was conducting a suo motu hearing into the rape and murder case of the seven-year-old at the SC’s Lahore registry.
Zainab’s parents had arrived at the SC shortly before the bench began the hearing. Punjab Inspector General of Police Arif Nawaz Khan, head of the joint investigation team probing Zainab’s murder, Additional IG Abu Bakar Khuda Bakhsh, and Punjab Chief Secretary Khizer Hayat, were also present in the court.
