HYDERABAD: Prosecution drops 13 witnesses in Pearl case
By Our Correspondent
HYDERABAD, May 21: The prosecution, in the Daniel Pearl kidnapping-cum- murder case, has dropped 13 out of 38 witnesses on Tuesday telling the court that sufficient material had been placed on record and nearly all the important PWs had already been produced.
The Advocate General Sindh, Raja Qureshi, the chief prosecutor in the case, informed the court that 13 witnesses dropped needed not to be produced and that only five more PWs would now be produced to prove the case.
The five PWs are Arshad Noor Khan (Anti-Terrorism Court-III Judge), Marianne Pearl (wife of the slain US journalist Daniel Pearl), Ronald Banett (the RSO at US consulate, Karachi), Hameedullah Memon and Rao Aslam (inspectors).
Those dropped are Athar Waqar Azeem (General Manager PTV), Manzoor Qureshi (programme manager PTV), Agha Tajamul (SSP), Malik Asghar Usman (DSP), Noor Muhammad (ASI), Ashiq Ali and Ali Nawaz (head constables), Chaudhry Nazar Hussain, Faisal Afridi (taxi driver), Mubarak Ali Shah, Sami Qureshi, Abdul Majeed and Haroon Sheikh.
Two more prosecution witnesses, Muhammad Ali (the assistant director, Anti-Car Lifting Cell, Karachi) and Zaheer Ahmed, an independent Musheer of the arrested accused — Fahad Naseem and Salman Saqib — were produced before the court on Tuesday bringing the total number of witnesses examined and cross-examined so far to 20.
All the accused were also present in the court.
Meanwhile, Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC), headed by Syed Ali Ashraf Shah, would record deposition of ATC-III Judge Arshad Noor Khan, former presiding judge in the case. The latter has been requested to be called as court witness by prosecution with the permission of the Sindh High Court (SHC). Deposition of Mr Ronald Banett, an official of the US consulate, would also be recorded. Mr Banett’s name was disclosed by a special agent of the FBI.
The application about appointment of commission to record the statement of Marianne Pearl remained undecided as Barrister Jameel, her counsel, apprised the court that he would consult with her about whether she was willing or not and would inform the court on Friday.
The court allowed a defence plea of the, Rai Basheer Ahmed, who had sought permission to allow him and his clients to examine a CD on their own computer. The CD was brought on record by PW, Sheikh Naeem, the sub-server operator Webnet, managed by Mehmood Iqbal Hashmi. The CD contained data of e-mails, claimed to have been sent by the accused to different organisations and newspapers, about Daniel Pearl and their demands.
The counsel did not accede to the request of prosecution that it would also like to see the CD alongwith the defence and accused. He maintained that since he had to prepare for cross-examination, he had reservations and could not oblige the prosecution.
