KARACHI: Supreme Court of Pakistan Tuesday said that Shahzeb Khan murder case should set a precedent that committers of such crime would not be spared or remain unaccountable.

A three-member bench of SC headed by Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, the chief justice of Pakistan, was hearing the case in the capital city while the remarks came up amid police’s lame excuses and weak statements they recorded in the court.

The chief justice took suo moto notice of the Khan murder who was slain in Karachi on December 24 allegedly by unruly scions of some rich and political influential people who did let police to register the report against the alleged murderers.

Members of the civil society and the political parties staged protest against the murder and the police failure of registering the report and the chief justice thus took up the case.

Because of the delay in reporting the case the prime suspect escaped from the country who was later on brought back home by the police as the Supreme Court kept pursuing the case.

The chief justice remarked during the hearing that this impression must be dispelled that influential accuse were not convicted.

When the court asked the chief investigator whether he investigated as to how Shahrukh Jatoi, the prime suspect, managed to flee, the police officer replied that it was Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) task to inquire into that. Shahid Hayat Khan, the investigator further told the court that Jatoi’s travel documents might be with the travel agent.

The court said that those who abetted Jatoi to flee were to be arrested too by the police but it was the most ignorant institution in the country. The court further said that except police every body knew that who the murderers of Khan were.

A magisterial court in Karachi has declared the prime suspect as minor whose age was below 18 and thus remanded to a juvenile jail instead of regular jail where the adults are sent.

The Supreme Court inquired the police whether they checked with the educational and other documents of Jatoi to ascertain his age. The police told the court that Jatoi had the national identity card on which there was no picture and they were investigating as to how he acquired the card whereas he was under age. The national identify card is issued by the Pakistani government when one attains the age of 18.

The court reprimanded the chief investigator remarking that he had left the investigation on a junior police officer.