By Staff Reporter
RAWALPINDI: A duty magistrate here ordered the husband and household servant of a young woman found dead in her apartment last week held in police custody for three additional days, as investigators press forward on a case that has drawn condemnation from the country’s first lady and members of its Parliament.
The woman, Hina Javed, was discovered dead on Thursday evening in the washroom of her apartment at Askari Apartments in the Lal Kurti area of Rawalpindi. Police said her body showed signs of torture. A wire had been fastened around her neck and tied to the shower rod.
Her husband and a domestic servant were taken into custody shortly after. Both were brought before the magistrate Sunday, where the Civil Lines police sought, and received, a three-day physical remand to continue their investigation. The court has directed police to file a progress report once that period concludes.
A brother’s account
The case originated with a first information report filed Aug. 20 at the Civil Lines police station, naming violations of Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code, which covers premeditated murder, and Section 34, which addresses acts committed with common intention.
The complaint was filed by Hina’s brother, Fahid Javed, who told police he received a phone call from his sister’s father-in-law at 6:53 p.m. Thursday alerting him to what he described as an emergency at the family’s residence. Fahid said he arrived at the apartment roughly a half-hour later, at 7:23 p.m., accompanied by other relatives, and found his sister’s body in the bathroom.
In his statement to police, Fahid alleged that his sister had endured “severe torture and mistreatment” at the hands of her husband, and said he believed she may also have been given a poisonous substance before her death. He named not only the husband but also his father — Hina’s father-in-law — and the family’s domestic servant as responsible.
Her brother told police that both of her hands were tied behind her back with cloth, her mouth had been gagged, and a wire had been wrapped around her neck and tied to the bathroom’s shower fixture.
Her family has accused three people of involvement in her death: her husband, Faisal Asghar Imam; his domestic worker, Zeeshan Arshad; and Imam’s father, Asghar Ali Fayyaz. Rawalpindi police said Saturday that Imam and Arshad had been taken into custody for questioning. Javed’s body was sent to Benazir Bhutto Hospital for a post-mortem examination.
An initial postmortem found a strangulation mark on her neck, along with an injury below her right lip and evidence of bleeding, according to police. Officials cautioned Sunday that a definitive cause of death would depend on forensic findings still pending from the Punjab Forensic Science Agency.
Investigation widens
The father-in-law’s precise role in Hina’s death remains under scrutiny. Police sources said that he has not been formally charged but is being questioned and has been instructed not to leave the city while the inquiry continues.
A seven-member investigative team, led by Rawalpindi Senior Superintendent of Police for Investigation Saifullah, has been assembled to handle the case. As part of that effort, authorities have seized the mobile phones belonging to Hina and three of her family members.
A national response
The case has reverberated well beyond Rawalpindi. First Lady Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari on Sunday called on the Punjab provincial government to carry out what her office described as a thorough investigation. In a post on the social platform X, the President’s Office said the first lady had conveyed her condolences to Hina’s family and expressed solidarity with them, calling the killing “brutal” and demanding accountability. She said those found responsible should be brought to justice in a manner that would deter others from committing similar acts, and voiced broader concern about what she characterized as a rise in violence against women across Pakistan, calling for stronger protective measures going forward.
Members of Pakistan’s Parliament also weighed in. Naz Baloch, a member of the National Assembly from the Pakistan Peoples Party, described Hina’s death as more than a private tragedy, calling it evidence of what she termed threatening elements within society, and said the loss of life in this manner was indefensible under any circumstance. She called for a transparent and impartial investigation and said those responsible should face legal consequences.
The Women’s Parliamentary Caucus of the National Assembly issued a separate statement expressing grief and condemning what it called the tragic circumstances of Hina’s death. The caucus called for a full and impartial investigation to determine the facts and ensure accountability for everyone connected to the case — not solely those already in custody.
Shahida Rehmani, the caucus’s secretary, said in the statement that the case raised serious questions about the safety of women within their own homes and insisted there could be no compromise in pursuing a complete and fair investigation. The caucus went further, calling for stronger enforcement of existing laws protecting women, along with more robust institutional mechanisms to safeguard their rights going forward.
A police spokesman said Saturday that the husband and servant had been detained on murder charges, while the father-in-law remained under active questioning. The Punjab Forensic Science Agency’s findings, once complete, are expected to play a central role in determining how prosecutors proceed.
Imam and Javed married in November 2025. Javed’s brother, Fahad Javed Malik, told the news outlet Arab News that his sister had complained of abuse in the time before her death. He said she worked for a semi-government organization while her husband had at times been without steady employment.
In the police complaint, Malik alleged that Imam routinely subjected his sister to physical and psychological abuse, and claimed Imam had treated a previous wife similarly, alleging that woman was ultimately forced to seek a divorce after enduring what Malik described as severe mistreatment.
Javed’s death arrives against a backdrop that rights advocates in Pakistan know well. Violence against women in the country is not confined to poorer or less educated households — a fact underscored by one of the nation’s most closely watched cases in recent years, the 2021 killing of Noor Mukadam, the 27-year-old daughter of a former Pakistani diplomat, inside an upscale Islamabad home. Zahir Jaffer, convicted in that killing, came from a wealthy and politically connected business family. That case, and others that have followed, helped focus public attention on the scope of violence Pakistani women face regardless of their economic circumstances.
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