Death of a woman
After the repeated embarrassments the government has suffered over the past few months, it is faced with an extremely grim scandal after Monday’s registration of an FIR against minister of state for communications Shahid Jamil Qureshi.
There are no hard facts yet, due partly to the understandable reticence of the communication and the apparent reluctance of the police to investigate the death of the woman with whom he was apparently sharing the same residence for some months. It’s too early to come to a conclusion whether the woman, a Canadian citizen of Pakistani origin, was kept confined against her wishes and murdered, as her distraught brother and husband insist. Nevertheless, the charge of illegal confinement is going to be hard to shake off for the minister, who has stated he was giving financial help to the woman but failed to explain why he was sharing his residence with her and why he had not brought her to hospital earlier. The minister will have much explaining to do if reports that there were bruises on the woman’s body are substantiated: there is already talk of the possibility of the exhumation of the body and reports suggest that motorway police posted at his residence (they come under his communications ministry) prevented police from carrying out a search.
Even at this early stage, there are questions as to why, despite the grimness of the matter, the police registered the FIR against him under Sections 344 and 346. The first provides for three years’ imprisonment and the second two. It’s almost certain that because of the death involved, Section 302 should have been involved. Perhaps this has to do with the influence of the suspect or perhaps the police is waiting for the medical report which may prove whether the woman died a natural death or was murdered (one hopes it’s the latter). For the government the most serious aspect of the incriminating situation in which the minister finds himself is that the matter has taken an international turn. Interpol had already gone into action after the husband complained against his wife’s alleged confinement but the local police apparently failed to investigate the matter. The best course for the government would be to ensure that the police and investigating agencies can carry out their probe without any pressure or fear and that the doctors do their job of ascertaining the cause of death properly. Placing the minister on the Exit Control List is a good first step — but the prompt burial of the woman’s body in Karachi indicates some possible cover-up given that it is unlikely that a report on the cause of death would have already been drawn up — without which a murder charge will not hold up in a court of law.
Source: The News
Date:6/13/2007
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