LAHORE: The Punjab government has constituted a six-member committee, including forensic experts, to oversee the investigations into the murder case of Sania Zehra in Multan to dig out the facts after the contents of the FIR and the post-mortem report clashed and generated controversies while the Multan police were unable to resolve the case.

Bahawalpur Regional Police Officer (RPO) Rai Babar Saeed is the convener of the committee while its members include Home Additional Secretary (police) Adnan Shahzad Khan, Deputy Prosecutor General Asmatullah Khan, Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA) Manager Pathology Dr Nasir Iqbal and Multan City Police Officer (CPO) Sadiq Ali Dogar.

The committee has been tasked with monitoring the investigation on a daily basis.

An official said the move came after the Multan CPO sent a request to the inspector general of police (IGP). The IGP forwarded it to the government through the home department to notify the committee to ensure transparency in resolving the murder case of Sania, the young mother of two.

She was found hanging from the ceiling fan of her in-law’s house near Kumharanwala Chowk, New Multan, on July 9. Her parents had lodged a murder case against her husband, Ali Raza, and five of her in-laws, alleging that they had killed their daughter and hanged her body to give an impression of suicide.

The Multan police had arrested Raza on July 20 soon after he left the Multan Press Club where he had told the media that police were abusing him. He insisted that Sania had committed suicide following an exchange of harsh words with him over some domestic issue.

The Multan CPO, in his letter, said the committee was needed to oversee investigations as the case had been made sensational due to social media that divided the opinion. He referred to the allegations of Sania’s father, Syed Asad Abbas, who claimed that the investigation was not being carried out on merit.

He also pointed out that there was no forensic expert in the Multan region to analyse the matter and remove discrepancies generated by the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA) as well as post-mortem report and other elements.

In the letter, he said that as per contents of FIR, the complainant claimed that there were multiple injuries and torture marks on the dead body but the post-mortem conducted after exhumation negated some allegations as mentioned in the FIR. He recommended monitoring of this oversight committee might be arranged under the provincial law minister and the minister for social welfare or the cabinet sub-committee on law & order.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2024