Pak SC directs govt to submit probe reports on flogging

Pakistan's Supreme Court today directed the federal interior secretary and other officials to submit reports to it every fortnight on its probe into the flogging of a teenage girl by the Taliban in the northwestern Swat valley, an incident that had shocked the nation.  

Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who had last week taken suo moto notice of the incident, expressed displeasure at the police for not properly preparing a First Information Report on the issue.  

Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah, the Chief Secretary and police chief of the North West Frontier Province appeared before an eight-member bench headed by Chaudhry. They were directed by the court to submit progress reports on their probe every fortnight in the chamber of the Chief Justice.  The case was then adjourned by the bench.  

Attorney General Latif Khosa requested that the matter be heard in-camera but the Chief Justice refused, saying the objective was to ascertain if the punishment meted out the girl was lawful.  

"We have to take care of human dignity," the Chief Justice said.

When the court was told that the police had registered an FIR, the Chief Justice questioned whether police were active in the area.  

Pakistanis were shocked last week when TV channels aired the two-minute video of 17-year-old Chand Bibi being flogged on the orders of the Taliban in Swat for venturing out of her home with a man who was not her husband. Three men held her down while a fourth flogged her.  

The incident has been condemned by civil society, rights activists, political and religious leaders. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has ordered an inquiry into the incident. Chand Bibi yesterday told two officials who visited her village in Swat that the incident had never occurred.  

However, Attorney General Kosa told the apex court today that the incident had occurred in the Provincially Administered Tribal Areas of the NWFP.