KARACHI: Verdict in murder case set aside: Judges plea dismissed
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, March 26: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday set aside the judgement of an anti-terrorism court and acquitted all the four accused earlier awarded life term for kidnapping, raping and killing an eight-year-old girl.
Mohammad Javed, Abdul Rauf, Mohammad Siraj and Mohammad Imran were sentenced to life term and a fine of Rs 100,000 each for killing Ayesha and to various jail terms and fines for other offences.
The incident occurred on December 14, 1999, and the accused were arrested on the following December 16. They were convicted in March 2001 and challenged their conviction soon afterwards.
Appearing for the appellants, advocates Mohammad Ashraf Kazi, Iqtidar Ali Hashmi and Ijaz Khattak submitted before an SHC division, comprising Justices Mohammad Roshan Essani and Anwar Zaheer Jamali, that the conviction was not recorded in accordance with the law.
The whole case was based on confessional statements made by the accused in police custody about two weeks after their arrest. The evidence was not admissible and no conviction could be sustained on the basis of it.
Giving the appellants the benefit of the doubt, the bench, which had reserved its judgment, allowed the appeals, set aside the conviction, acquitted the accused and ordered their release if not required in any other case.
JUDGE CASE: A division bench of the Sindh High Court dismissed on Wednesday a writ petition challenging direct appointment of 25 lawyers as senior civil judges in the province in 1996.
The petition was moved by seven senior civil judges-cum- additional sessions judges who stated that they were inducted into the lower grade of the Sindh Judicial Service as civil judges and first class magistrates in 1992 after a minimum of three years practice at the bar and before the enforcement of the Sindh Judicial Service Rules, 1994.
The rules were framed to regulate appointments, promotions and other service matters relating to judicial officers serving in the province.
The rules provided for direct appointment of only the lower grade of civil judges and judicial magistrates and, to the extent of one third of the vacancies of additional district and sessions judges. Senior civil judges were to be appointed by promotion from amongst the serving civil judges and judicial magistrates on the recommendation of the provincial selection board, but if no suitable judge of the lower grade was available, they could be appointed directly by way of initial recruitment.
The respondent judges rejoined that the petition had been filed six years after the impugned appointments, and was, therefore, liable to be dismissed on ground of inordinate delay.
The vacancies were exclusively meant for practising lawyers and they had since been promoted under the rules on the basis of their competence as judicial officers.
The division bench, which consisted of Justices Mohammad Roshan Essani and Anwar Zaheer Jamali, had reserved its order on March 5 after hearing Advocates Shoaib M. Ashraf, Rashid A. Razvi and other lawyers for petitioners and respondents and Additional Advocate-General Sarwar Khan for the Sindh government. The attorney-general was represented by Deputy Attorney-General Nadeem Azhar Siddiqui.
PLEA ADJOURNED: The Sindh High Court adjourned till Friday further consideration of former federal secretary Javed Burki’s bail application after hearing inconclusive arguments on Wednesday.
Mr Burki, who is also a former chairman of the Pakistan Automobile Corporation (Paco), was arrested three months back in a reference alleging a shady deal for truck manufacturing costing the public exchequer about Rs 1 billion. Co-accused Muzammil Niazi was also arrested but is under treatment in hospital.
Appearing for the applicant, Abdul Hafeez Lakho and Khwaja Naveed Ahmed submitted before a division bench that he was innocent and the impugned deal was a genuine business transaction. The applicant had no role in it and had ceased to be Paco chairman before its signing.
The counsel also submitted that no accountability court was functioning in Karachi and the applicant had already been under arrest for three months.
The bench, which consisted of Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Rehmat Hussain Jaferi, adjourned the hearing for further arguments.
