SC addl registrar target-killed
Staff Report: Daily Times, May 15, 2007
ISLAMABAD: Four men sneaked into the house of Supreme Court (SC) Additional Registrar Hammad Raza in Sector G-10/2 early on Monday morning and gunned him down, apparently in a target killing.
Raza’s widow Shabana claimed that her husband had been target-killed because the intruders had not touched anything in the house. “They just came and shot him. He opened the door and they shot him and ran away,” she told Reuters. She said that the killers were able to escape even though a police vehicle was patrolling their neighbourhood at the time of the incident. Shabana said that Raza did not have enmity with any person and had not received threats from any person.
Raza was stationed in Balochistan before being reassigned to the SC by CJP Iftikhar Chaudhry. “You called him to Islamabad. You should have protected him, and now my children need protection as well,” Shabana told Chaudhry when he visited Raza’s house to offer his condolence.
British High Commission officials also visited Raza’s family at the behest of his widow, who says she holds British citizenship.
Shalimar police said four ‘robbers’ entered Raza’s house and killed him when he resisted. However, doctors at PIMS said Raza’s body did not have any scar or wound, challenging the police’s claim that Raza had resisted.
Islamabad IG Iftikhar Chaudhry said it was too early to say if the incident was a target killing. Chaudhry said a police team led by DIG Shahid Baloch had been formed to investigate Raza’s murder.
Meanwhile, an investigating officer confided to Daily Times that they had not found any sign of resistance by Raza.
Acting CJ Rana Bhagwandas, Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Faqeer Muhammad Khokhar and other judges also visited Raza’s house and condoled with his family.
Daily Times learnt that Raza was a prime defence witness in the presidential reference against the CJP. Munir A Malik, a lawyer on the CJP’s defence team, said the CJP had confirmed that Raza could appear in court as a witness to defend him and his murder at this time was suspicious.
Meanwhile, Raza was buried at the Shahenshah graveyard in Karim Block, Allama Iqbal Town, Lahore.
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WHO KILLED HAMMAD RAZA?
By Ansar Abbasi
ISLAMABAD: Who killed Hamad Raza? And why? The answers to these questions may take some time but the batchmates and colleagues of this fine District Management Group (DMG) officer are really in a state of shock.
Some of these officers in their background discussions confided to this correspondent that the officer was under immense pressure to stand in the witness box against the chief justice. Raza was not a Supreme Court official but a civil servant appointed to the apex court by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on deputation. Though he was given the title of additional registrar, he was serving as a personal staff officer of Justice Iftikhar, who is facing a presidential reference today.
A source told this correspondent that the agencies men were asking him to provide them with details like the number of plots the chief justice has. Hamad also shared with his friends and family that he was asked frivolous questions like the character of the chief justice’s son, Dr Arsalan, and his relations with his wife.
Hamad Raza was from 23rd batch of the DMG and has the reputation of an outstanding officer of unimpeachable integrity. According to his colleagues, who had seen him working closely for the last several years, despite having Punjab domicile the officer served with great integrity and grace in Balochistan for almost the first eight years of his service, while for most of the DMGs the province has become a no-go area.
He was director health Balochistan and also served as deputy secretary staff to the chief secretary Balochistan. Raza also served as deputy secretary in the Service and General Administration Department (S&GAD). Considering his outstanding reputation and service orientation and panache for rule of law, the chief justice requisitioned his services for appointment as the additional registrar of the Supreme Court. Everyone in the SC knows that he was in a way personal staff officer to the chief justice and it was for this very reason that he got the third degree in repeated sessions by the agencies.
Raza was a gold medalist from Quaid-i-Azam University, and was among top-10 in batch of 1996 in the CSS examinations. He was extremely well read, had informed views on issues facing the nation and was full of energy and spirit to serve the country selflessly, according to his colleagues, he belonged to Shariqpur and came from a middle-class background.
He told his family and friends during the last two months that on a number of occasions he was summoned by agencies that were trying to get information about the alleged “wrongdoing” of the chief justice. He, according to his friends, was being pressurised to give evidence in support of reference. His contention, according to them, was that yes he would stand witness, but not for any party, only for truth and justice.
“He lived and acted for the rule of law, and died for the rule of law,” a DMG officer said, adding that the circumstances of his death warrant a judicial inquiry by a high court judge. The circumstances of his killing, most of these DMGs believe, suggested that it was a targeted killing masked as dacoity.
His wife is a Pakistan British national, who, the deceased’s friends present there claimed, told the hon’able Supreme Court judges, who visited Hamad’s official residence, that they should be careful about their own lives and security. She termed the incident a target killing. A batchmate of Hamad said that he was a dead honest officer and had just been allotted an official residence in G-10, where he was killed in cold blood.
The officer was living in a semi-furnished house. His batch mate wondered, “Only insane dacoits will try to rob a grade 19 official living in such a run-down neighbourhood, whereas across the road they can find affluent houses of the rich and wealthy.” He said that Hamad’s wife showed the gold bangles she was wearing to visitors and asked if it was a dacoity, then why did they not take this jewellery and other valuables like lap top etc.”
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