Enquiry into Tayyaba torture case expedited after SC order

ISLAMABAD: Assistant Commissioner Nisha Ishtiaq recorded her statement in the Islamabad High Court on Friday as enquiry into Tayyaba torture case expedited after orders from the Supreme Court.

Ishtiaq is the assistant commissioner whom child domestic help Tayyaba told that she had been tortured by Additional District and Sessions Judge Raja Khurram Ali and his wife. 

She recorded her statement on behalf of the prosecution. 

During the hearing on Friday, Ishtiaq told the court she personally recorded Tayyaba’s statement and signed on the document.

Raja Khurram was also present in the court with his counsel, Raja Rizwan Abbasi.

The next date of hearing was fixed for January 19, when three witnesses, constables Naseem, Mariam and Ghulam Hussain have been summoned.

On January 9, a three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, expressed dissatisfaction over prosecutor's performance and ordered completion of the trial by February 15.

During the hearing, the chief justice enquired the prosecutor on the number of days it would take to complete the trial. To this, the advocate general told the court that witnesses' statements were being recorded and the proceedings will be completed in the end of February.

The apex court also discarded an appeal filed by judge Raja Khurram, challenging the high court's rejection of a compromise with parents of the tortured minor girl.

The case

In late December 2016, Tayyaba, a 10-year-old domestic help, was recovered from the house of Raja Khurram after receiving complaints of torture from neighbours.

The minor girl, whose face and hands bore torture marks, had initially denied being hurt by her employers. She told the police that she got a wound to her eye after falling from stairs, while her hand was also burnt accidentally.

However, the poor girl narrated her ordeal after being politely inquired by a female magistrate later. She stated before the magistrate that she was beaten and her hand burnt on the stove for losing the broom.

A case was lodged against Raja Khurram and his wife at the Industrial Area police station for torture and violence.

Later, an enquiry report found Raja Khurram’s wife Maheen responsible for torturing the child maid Tayyaba, and the ADSJ of indirect criminal negligence.

According to sources, the report prepared by DIG Operations Kashif Alam stated that Tayyaba’s medical report confirmed the torture marks on her body. There are 22 torture marks on her body, it said.

The report raised the question of how it was possible that the additional sessions judge remained unaware of torture being meted out to Tayyaba. He knew about the torture all along, the report stated.