Hina Javed Family Writes Again to Punjab CM
A new Hina Javed family letter to Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz again expresses mistrust in the police investigation into her death and demands a judicial commission. The letter emerged on Sunday, a day after the chief minister commented on the case on social media.
Hina, a 45-year-old digital media executive, was found dead at her residence in Rawalpindi in August, with police noting signs of torture. Her husband and their domestic worker were arrested, while her father-in-law was questioned as part of the investigation. The family has accused her husband of involvement in her death, a claim the police investigation committee has not accepted.
Hina Javed Family Letter Rejects Police Findings
In the letter, the family referred directly to Maryam Nawaz’s post on X on Saturday. The chief minister had been asked online to look into the case, and she replied that she was keeping a close watch. She said DNA and polygraph results pointed towards the domestic worker, while adding that the investigation was still under way.
The family rejected that reading of the evidence. It claimed the investigation “continues to shift blame away from” the victim’s husband, and said the family had shared its concerns about the police investigation committee without result.
“We, the family of the late Hina Javed, write to you publicly because every effort to reach you directly has failed,” the letter began. It added: “The extent and brutality of torture tells you everything you need to know about this murder. It tells you about the rage and hate that went into it.”
The family said it had tried repeatedly to meet or speak with the chief minister, but had never been able to reach her. It also said forensic reports on the husband’s laptop, and on the mobile phones of the husband and the domestic worker, were still pending. It claimed pertinent messages had been deleted from Hina’s mobile phone, and it accused her husband of “planting evidence” in the case.
DNA Evidence at the Centre of the Dispute
The dispute turns on forensic evidence. According to the postmortem and DNA report analysis, evidence collected during the investigation indicated that Hina had been brutally tortured. The postmortem report noted blue marks on her hands and arms and a wound on her neck.
Forensic evidence collected from the crime scene also matched the DNA samples of her husband and the domestic worker, according to the DNA analysis report. The report said the Y-STR profile from Hina’s clothes found a mixture of DNA from at least three individuals, and her husband, father-in-law and domestic worker could not be excluded as contributors.
The family, in its letter, claimed the DNA of Hina’s husband and father-in-law was found on her body. It asked the chief minister to look into the case file in detail and see the evidence linking Hina’s husband “to the murder being ignored from day one”.
The family also objected to the police investigation committee being “allowed to declare who is guilty and who is innocent before the case has gone to trial”. It added: “That decision belongs to a court of law, not to the investigators. A body that both investigates and pronounces a verdict has a clear conflict of interest, and we have no confidence that justice will be served this way.”
It rejected the findings of the police investigation committee and repeated its demand for the immediate formation of a judicial commission for an “impartial investigation” of the case.
What Happens Next in the Hina Javed Case
The letter closed with a direct appeal: “As a woman and as the chief executive of this province, we appeal to you to ensure that her killers are not shielded and that her family receives justice under the law.”
The case has already drawn attention beyond Punjab. Last month, the Punjab government constituted a three-member high-powered committee to review the investigation. That committee has visited Rawalpindi, questioned the husband and the domestic worker at Adiala Jail, met the family and inspected the crime scene. Both men are on judicial remand.
