A nine month old Pakistani baby faces an attempted murder charge in a case believed to highlight endemic flaws in the country’s legal system.
Baby Mohammad Musa together with his father and other family members are accused of throwing rocks at gas company officials in the working-class Ahata Thanedaran neighbourhood on February 1, according to the family’s lawyer Chaudhry Irfan Sadiq.
It was a case of attempted murder Inspector Kashif Muhammad, who attended the alleged crime scene and has since been suspended, wrote in his report.
Baby Musa appeared in a packed court on Thursday while being held by his grandfather Yasin.
“Everyone in the court was saying ‘How can such a small child be implicated in any case’? What kind of police do we have?” the 50-year-old labourer said.
Pakistan’s minimum age of criminal responsibility was raised from seven to 12 years in 2013 except in terrorism cases highlights that the charge in this case is in direct contradiction.
Mr Yasin accused the police of fabricating the charges and explained that they were colluding with a rival party who wished to see the accused evicted from their land and had gone as far as obtaining an order to remove their gas connections.
“The police and gas company officials came without any notice and started removing gas meters from houses. Residents started protesting and blocked the road but ended the protest when senior police officers arrived in the area and assured them that no injustice would be done.
“But later we found out that cases have been filed against us,” he added.
Judge Rafaqat Ali Qamar ordered the inspector to be suspended and granted the child bail, though he will have to appear at the next hearing on April 12.
But Mr Sadiq, the lawyer, said the charges against the child should have been dropped.
“The court should have simply referred the minor’s case to the High Court to drop the charges against the innocent child and acquit him from the case,” Sadiq said.
“This case also exposes the incompetence of our police force and the way they are operating,” he added
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