Pak CJ takes notice of Swat girl flogging

Pak CJ takes notice of Swat girl floggingIslamabad, Apr. 4 : Pakistan's Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry has taken suo motu notice of the flogging of a girl in the Swat Valley.

Chaudhry has asked the federal interior secretary, the NWFP chief secretary and the NWFP inspector general of police to appear before the court on Monday.

The two-minute video shows a veiled girl, face down on the ground with two men holding her arms and feet. A third man whips her backside repeatedly for allegedly having `illicit relations with her father-in-law' - causing her to scream: "Either stop it or kill me."

Chaudhry ordered the fixation of the matter under Article 184(3) of the constitution before an eight-member larger bench of the Supreme Court, to be headed by him.

The CJP also directed the federal interior secretary to find the victim and produce her before the court.

Notices have also been issued to the attorney general of Pakistan, the NWFP advocate general and the president of the NWFP High Court Bar Association.

Earlier, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had ordered a probe into the case.

Pakistan based human rights groups and civil society activists had lodged protest against the flogging case in Swat. (ANI)

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