July 28th, 2021
By Ahmad Saeed
LAHORE
The family of the late Senator and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) leader Usman Kakar has accepted the two-member judicial commission constituted by the Balochistan Government to ascertain the cause of the death of the former lawmaker.
The commission comprises two Balochistan High Court (BHC) judges, Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan and Justice Zaheer ud Din Kakar.
Justice Afghan is also the senior puisne judge of the BHC and has heard many important cases in the past. He was part of the bench which declared certain clauses of the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) Act unconstitutional and therefore null-and-void.
“We welcome the formation of the commission and will cooperate with it,” Usman Kakar’s son Khushal Kakar told Voicepk.net. “We will monitor how the commission conducts the probe and will comment on its working later.”
Khushal also said that the PkMAP and the late democrat’s family will utilize all legal avenues to attain justice.
Usman Kakar’s dead under mysterious circumstances has raised many eyebrows, mounting pressure on the government to conduct a judicial inquiry into the demise of a former parliamentarian as per the wishes of his family.
Usman Kakar died on Monday, June 21, after brief treatment of his head injury at Karachi’s Aga Khan Hospital. The reason for his sudden death is yet uncertain, however his family claims that he was murdered by assailants who entered in the house and bludgeoned him with the intent to kill.
PkMAP leader Mahmood Khan Achakzai also provided that the party and family members have evidence that Usman Kakar’s death was not natural, and that they would share proof with all forums except the “intelligence agencies.”
The postmortem found no signs of torture on Usman Kakar’s body, however the report did not mention the cause of the death, instead stating that the actual cause of death will be declared in a pathology report, for which several samples were collected from the body.
NO FIR LODGED AS OF YET
Although the family of the late PkMAP leader has already declared his death murder, no first information report (FIR) has been lodged as of yet. According to Khushal Kakar, the son of Usman Kakar, they have yet to register an FIR as they do not trust the police and other law enforcement agencies.
However, he told Voicepk.net that they will consider lodging a complaint at an appropriate time.
Senior lawyers on the other hand say not registering the FIR can become an obstacle in the proceedings of the judicial commission.
“An FIR is the basis of every judicial process. In absence of that, how can a court or a commission start their proceedings?” posited Advocate Ali Kakar, a member of the PkMAP.
He said that the lodging of an FIR is crucial and it was his party’s responsibility to register the case.
Senior PkMAP leader Abdul Rahim Khan Ziaratwal, while agreeing that an FIR was important in this case, said that the authorities should rather lodge a case.
“If the authorities fail to do so, then we will discuss with our lawyers and lodge a case ourselves in the coming days.”
