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MULTAN, Aug 8: Cross-examination of the prosecution witnesses was completed on Thursday as former SHO of Jatoi police station, inspector Nazeer Ahmed Babber (PW16), concluded his statement. Besides 16 PWs, five other people, including the Muzaffargarh district nazim, Malik Sultan Hinjra, deposed as court witnesses during the trial. The court issued notice to Jatoi police and Dr Fazal, MO, Jatoi RHC, on the application of the prosecution to appear before the court on Friday (today) with relevant record of the Shakoor-sodomy case.
The prosecution has also urged the court to make July 23 issue of a local Urdu daily part of the prosecution file. The judge reserved his verdict on the subject for the next day of hearing. Similarly, the judge is yet to give his decision on a defence application seeking re-examination of the prosecution witness and Jatoi area magistrate Rana Muhammad Ashfaq. The defence filed the application in this regard on Wednesday last. The July 23 issue of the Urdu daily carried three news-items about the Meerwala gang-rape. One was about the jurisdiction of the ATC — whether it could hear a rape case, the other was about the restoration of some Jatoi police station officials who were earlier suspended for keeping some people confined illegally.
The third item claimed that the Muzaffargarh police chief had exonerated some eight accused in the police investigation after taking bribe of Rs 1.5m.
It may be added here that the police had placed eight of the 15 accused of the Meerwala case into column two of the challan for want of evidences against them.
STRIKE: Officials of the Dera Ghazi Khan anti-terrorism court struck work on Thursday against what they claimed ‘rude’ attitude of judge Malik Zulfiqar Ali.
The sub-ordinate staff (of the judge) comprised a reader, personal assistant, stenographer, accountant and three low-grade officials. They left the court soon after the official duty hours when the judge was working in his chamber after adjourning the proceedings of the Meerwala case for Aug 9 (Friday).
Talking to journalists, the ATC staff said their strike was for an indefinite period. They said the judge had made them work for 15 to 16 hours daily. “We are not allowed to contact our families by telephone or come out of the court premises briefly. Consequently, we have to observe ‘forced fasting’ of 16 hours a day because ordering meal is not permitted during the duty hours,” they said.
They said Yesterday (Wednesday) they gathered courage and got an order placed for a meal at a nearby hotel. When the hotel boy came to collect utensils, the judge detained him for two hours.
They said they had faxed appeals to the chief justices of Supreme Court and Lahore High Court beside sending the same SOS calls to the Punjab governor, chief secretary, home secretary and law minister to intervene.
When probed, it was learnt that besides the Meerwala case currently there were only three cases under trial with the Dera ATC. The higher courts have reportedly granted status-quo in all the three cases other than the Meerwala case on the issue of court jurisdiction.
Therefore, before the initiation of the Meerwala case trial the Dera ATC staff had practically come to the court to do nothing. But, due to the importance of the Meerwala case in the light of suo moto taken by the apex court, the judge was holding the court even in extra time to decide the case within the stipulated time period of three weeks given by the apex court.
In the given situation, the decision in the Meerwala case might be delayed in case the court staff did not end its strike in coming days.
