KARACHI, Jan 15: A division bench of the Sindh High Court put off on Tuesday till Feb 1 hearing of appeals of nine convicts of a banned organization, the Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan, who had challenged the death sentence awarded to them by a STA court in a murder case of seven activists of a rival sectarian group.

The bench comprised Justice Zahid Kurban Alavi and Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany.

The appellants were accused of murdering seven persons in March 1995 in a house on Tariq Road. All the victims belonged to the Shia community.

Appellants Mansoor Ali, Umar Hayat, Mohammed Fazil, Karimullah Sharif, Saghir Ahmed, Shaikh Ishtiaq Ali, Khwaja Salimuddin, Ahmed Zahoor and Hafiz Ahmed Bakhsh were awarded capital punishment on two counts by a Suppression of Terrorists Activities (STA) court on a charge of killing seven persons. The court had also awarded them 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs150,000 each.

The appellants preferred appeal in the High Court against their conviction. The High Court, in 1999, while deciding the appeals, remanded the case for retrial. The state went in appeal to the Supreme Court which on January 23, 2001 set aside the order of the High Court and ordered rehearing of the appeals on merit.

Since then, the appeals have been pending in the High Court.

Barrister Azizullah K. Shaikh, representing appellants Hafiz Ahmed Bakhsh, advocate, and Saghir Ahmed, manager MCB, Hyderabad, had filed a bail application in August last year.

On each date of hearing the counsel pressed for hearing of appeals and the bail application. His contention was that this clients had been in condemned cells for seven years and that there was no evidence against them, except retracted confession of a co-accused which could not be the basis for conviction.

The court adjourned hearing to Feb 1 as an Assistant Advocate-General, Sindh, Suleman Habibullah, and some of the appellants’ counsel sought time.