July 25, 2002	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 14,1423

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MULTAN, July 24: Judge Malik Zulfiqar Ali of the Dera Ghazi Khan anti-terrorism court has finally declared the Meerwala gang- rape case fit for trial under anti-terrorism act, 1997, on Wednesday.

In a short order, the judge directed to mark attendance of the 15 accused in the case, who were on court premises in a police bus, to learn the fate of the case whether it would be tried at an ATC for a speedy trial or at an ordinary session court.

The judge also directed the police to produce the accused in the Meerwala gang-rape case on July 26 for regular trial. Charges will be framed against the accused on that day. The prosecution witnesses have also been summoned to start testifying their statements from the same day.

The accused in the case are: Faiz Bakhsh (chief juror); Ramzan Pachaar (arbitrator); Ghulam Farid (rapist-juror); Abdul Khaliq, Allah Ditta, and Fayyaz Hussain (rapists).

ASI Muhammad Iqbal of the Jatoi police station is also among the 15 accused. He is charged for abetment and negligence of duty. The remaining eight are said to be part of a strong gathering of Balochi Mastoi clan which got the panchayat (jury) verdict of gang-rape enforced.

The decision of the judge to trial the case has surprised the observers as on the court notice to argue about the ATC jurisdiction to hear the case, both prosecution and the defence lawyers had argued on Tuesday last that the court lacked competency to trail a rape case due to recent amendments in the Ata-37.

Defence lawyers Malik Saleem and Yaqoob Khan had argued that in their point of view the Meerwala incident was an outcome of personal enmity and, therefore, according to the supreme court ruling in the Mehram Ali versus state case personal enmity did not fall under the definition of terrorism.