July 23, 2002	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 12,1423

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MULTAN, July 22: The Dera Ghazi Khan Anti-Terrorism Court judge has issued a notice to the chief prosecutor of the ATCs in the Punjab to argue that the Meerwala gang-rape case falls under the court jurisdiction.

Judge Malik Zulfiqar Ali, while admitting the case for trial on July 19 last, had given the defence an opportunity to contest the court jurisdiction to hear a rape case. He gave the defence July 22 deadline to challenge the jurisdiction.

But, the defence counsel, Malik Muhammad Saleem and Muhammad Yaqoob Khan, informed the court on Monday that they were not challenging the jurisdiction. They were of the view that punishment in the rape case was same — capital punishment — irrespective of the matter whether it was being tried at an ATC or at a sessions court.

At this, the judge issued notices to the chief prosecutor and defence lawyers to appear on Tuesday (July 23) and give arguments that the case was fit to be tried at the ATC set up under the ATA-97.

The judge has also ordered the police to produce the 15 accused before the court on the same day.

The accused are: Faiz Bakhsh, the chief juror, Ramzan Pachaar, the arbitrator, Ghulam Farid, Juror-rapist, Abdul Khaliq, Allah Ditta and Fayyaz Husain, the rapists. ASI Muhammad Iqbal of Jatoi police station is also among the accused for abetment and negligence from duty. The rest of the eight accused were the part of the strong Mastoi clan assembly.

It may be added here that before admitting the case for trial, the public prosecutor of the ATC, Qazi Iftikhar Arif, had called a defence lawyer and asked him whether the accused had any contention to challenge the competency of the ATC to hear the rape case. But the defence counsel told him that they had no such intention.

It may be mentioned here that some recent amendments in the ATA-97 have dropped the offence of rape from the schedule offences of the ATCs. But due to the terror and harassment the Meerwala gang-rape has reportedly spread in the society, the police and the special prosecutor of the ATCs in the Punjab incorporated the section 6(2)(b) of the ATA-97 which related to commotion and harassment to a segment of the society.

Meanwhile, the defence counsel reportedly submitted before court on Monday to review its decision to hold an in-camera trial of the case, arguing that an open trial would leave no doubt about the case facts before the media which had reported the case extensively. But the judge turned down their request.

The regular trial will start from July 26,