MULTAN, Aug 9: The defence in Meerwala gang-rape case will submit a list of people to whom it wants to call as witnesses before the DG Khan anti-terrorism court on Saturday.

On the completion of statements of the prosecution witnesses (PWs), the judge, Malik Zulfiqar Ali, asked the defence counsel to present the list of witnesses if they wanted to produce them before court.

Senior defence counsel Malik Saleem requested court to give them (the defence) time to finalize the list. At this, the judge adjourned proceedings for Saturday (today).

Earlier, special public prosecutor Ramzan Khalid Joiya formally informed court that the prosecution had presented its case with the conclusion of the statement of Dr Fazal Hussain, SMO, Jatoi RHC, on Friday. This was his second appearance. Earlier, he appeared as PW1 to verify his report regarding the potency of the four alleged rapists.

However, he was recalled by court on the request of prosecution to testify his medical examination report regarding the Shakoor sodomy case.

Dr Fazal stated that on July 3 last he medically examined Shakoor at about 11.15 am at the RHC. He said though the behaviour of the victim was normal, there were marks of external violence on his body. He said signs and symptoms from external and internal examination of the body parts revealed that Shakoor was subjected to sodomy. He told court that the chemical examiner’s report on this account (sodomy) was also positive.

When the prosecution completed its witnesses, the judge posed questions to the accused under section 342 CrPC, including why they were accused by the complainants and that why the PWs deposed against them.

Ten of the 14 accused, including chief juror Faiz Muhammad, pleaded not guilty in their replies saying they were named by the complainant only because they were from the Mastoi clan. Among rest of the accused, Fayyaz Hussain said he was arrested wrongly instead of the actual Fayyaz Hussain accused by the complainant who was a cousin of accused Abdul Khaliq.

Accused Ghulam Farid also took the same plea while claiming not guilty. He said he had been implicated in the case instead of actual accused Ghulam Farid (s/o Mehmood Mastoi) because Maulvi Abdul Razzaq (PW) had personal enmity with him.

Accused Ramzan Pachaar (arbitrator) said he was entrapped by Maulvi Razzaq whom he (Pachaar) had got expelled from the ‘imamat’ (leadership) of an area mosque for his links with the banned Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan.

The main accused, Abdul Khaliq, told court in his defence through his counsel that after a settlement between his Mastoi family and Shakoor’s Gujjar, his sharae nikah was solemnized with Mukhtaran Mai while the hand of his sister Salma had to be given to Shakoor. But when they (Mastois) backed out from the agreement, the Gujjar family lodged cases of gang-rape and sodomy against them.

Meanwhile, the judge allowed the prosecution to exhibit the July 23 last issue of a local Urdu daily in its file. The request of the defence to recall Jatoi area magistrate Rana Muhammad Ashfaq was, however, turned down by court. The magistrate had earlier appeared in the court as PW7.

On the other hand, six of the seven officials of the subordinate staff of the judge applied for two-day leave on Friday and did not come to their place of duty. The judge carried out most of court work on Friday on his own with the assistance of a stenographer provided by the DCO office.

It may be mentioned that the staff of the judge had announced a strike for an indefinite period against what they claimed the ‘rude’ attitude of the judge.