ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) has nominated Advocate Raja Mohammad Farooq to pursue the case involving the tragic death of 19-year-old schoolteacher Maria Sadaqat of Murree, who died from burn injuries on June 1 after allegedly refusing a marriage proposal.

“As a criminal lawyer, I have never come across such a shocking tragedy in my whole life. Therefore, I have decided to take up this matter as a [charity] case,” Raja Farooq told Dawn on Saturday.

Mr Farooq, who also hails from Murree, is mainly a criminal lawyer. But his claim to fame is the houbara bustard case that dominated headlines last year. He deplored that the police investigation had declared Maria’s death a case of suicide and not murder, later declaring the main accused innocent and allowing him to be bailed out.

A two-member fact-finding mission, consisting of former SCBA presidents Asma Jahangir and Kamran Murtaza, had recommended that SCBA president Ali Zafar nominate a competent trial lawyer to follow the case on behalf of the victim’s family. After thorough deliberations, the association nominated Raja Farooq.

Ali Zafar terms current police investigation ‘unacceptable’, demands fresh probe

The way local police investigated the crime spoke volumes about their lack of professionalism and ineptitude, Mr Farooq regretted, adding that the circumstances of Maria’s death clearly suggested that it was not a suicide.

On one hand, he said, there stood a poor mechanic who lost his daughter, while on the other was an influential family that was exerting pressure on the police to declare as suicide the murder of a girl who allegedly refused to accept a marriage proposal. Mr Farooq said he had also filed a similar petition before the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC).

The two-member fact-finding mission was tasked with assessing whether police were carrying out an independent and neutral investigation. The purpose of the mission was also to form an opinion over whether the killing of young women follows a pattern where the victim’s character is vilified, the family is put under pressure and the investigation suffers because of external influences.

“We also intend to move a petition before the Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court to seek directions for the police to hold fresh investigations into [Maria’s] death,” Ali Zafar told Dawn.

Saying that the investigation carried out by police thus far was “not acceptable to us”, Mr Zafar vowed that the SCBA would participate in the trial on behalf of the legal heirs of the unfortunate woman.

The two-member mission had issued a report to the media, highlighting that in an attempted self-immolation, the first part of the human body to be burnt would be the hands. The victim’s statement that she had been held to the ground by four men seems to be the explanation for her hands, feet and face being saved from burn injuries.

This argument was endorsed by Raja Farooq, who said that it was human nature to try and touch the part of the body that feels pain. But in Maria’s case, there were no burn marks up to eight inches above her ankles, and her hands were burn-free.

The mission also recalled that in the 40 hours the victim was treated at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad, she consistently accused Master Shaukat and his accomplices of being her attackers.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2016