The Supreme Court yesterday rejected a police report on the murder of a 35-year-old woman in Punjab district and gave the government three days to take action against senior officers.

The court ordered the action against four officers, including an inspector general of police (IGP), after their investigation was deemed to have framed the deceased woman’s husband, Sarfraz Shah, despite evidence a town council had ordered her death following a dispute with a landowner.

The original police report registered a case against nine men linked to the landlord, but was later altered.

“Punjab IGP has done nothing in this case and ultimately he is responsible for this incident,” said Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. “No-one from the investigation officer to the IGP is worthy of staying at their posts.”

On July 13, a village council of 41 elders reportedly ordered Maryam Bibi’s death following a dispute after she was found cutting grass on land belonging to a local landowner, who then allegedly sexually harassed her.

The next day, Bibi filed a petition at the district court stating her life was in danger. Four days later she was found dead in a field in her village.

Although the police report found the cause of death to be suffocation and included a confession from Bibi’s husband Shah that he strangled her, a final autopsy is still due to be filed in coming days. In court yesterday the man’s father insisted his son was innocent and that he had been framed by police.

Akram Khuram, a lawyer with the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan who visited the village to investigate, said the death was linked to a year-long dispute between Bibi and a local landlord.