KARACHI, April 18: Mohammed Imran, alleged deputy chief of the banned Harkatul Mujahideen Al-Almi, and Zubair, a worker of the organization, have filed appeals in the Sindh High Court against their conviction and sentence by an anti-terrorism court in the US consulate carbomb case.
Raza Abidi, counsel for the appellants, challenged the death sentence awarded to Mohammed Imran and the life Imprisonment given to Zubair.
The counsel cited a number of legal lacunas in the case and judgment and prayed to the court to set aside the conviction and sentence of the appellants.
Mohammed Haneef, the chief of the organization, has already filed an appeal in the SHC. Sharib, the fourth accused convicted by the ATC, is yet to file an appeal within the stipulated period of seven days from the day the judgment was announced.
The fifth accused, Mohammed Ashraf, alleged to be finance secretary of the organization, was acquitted of all charges by Judge Syed Aley Maqbool Rizvi of the ATC-I.
APPEAL ALLOWED: A division bench of the Sindh High Court allowed appeal filed by an appellant, Said Karim.
The bench comprised Justice Shabbir Ahmed and Justice Azizullah M. Memon.
The appellant was sentenced by special judge of the Control of Narcotic Substances Court to life imprisonment with a fine of Rs one million. In case of default in the payment of fine he was to serve another two years of imprisonment.
According to the prosecution, the accused was arrested on a spy information on 21-11-1998 when he was waiting in front of DJ Science College for a buyer. He carried a bag in which four packets of white heroin powder and six packets of brown heroin powder were found.
The appellant on interrogation by ANF men allegedly disclosed that heroin powder was brought from an Afghan Basti off Super Highway and a buyer, Arshad Saleem, was to take the consignment. The ANF men waited and arrested Arshad Saleem.
Both the accused were sent up for trial. The trial court acquitted Arshad Saleem of smuggling charges, but the appellant was convicted.
Barrister Azizullah K. Shaikh, appearing for the appellant, submitted that the bag from which the contraband was recovered was burnt by the ANF and only samples in a negligible quantity were sent to the chemical examiner.
The bench earlier heard and reserved the judgment on March 7.
BAILS GRANTED: A bench of the Sindh High Court, comprising Justice Muhammad Ashraf Leghari, admitted on Friday DSP CIA Saadullah to bail against a surety of Rs200,000.
The applicant was accused in the custodial killing of Sattar Baloch, an activist of the PPP (SB) in 1999. The appellant is facing trial before a sessions court on a private complaint filed by Ms Dur Bibi, mother of the deceased.
A number of other CIA policemen are co-accused in the case.
On 6-3-1999 a CIA police party raided the flat of the complainant and arrested her son. They allegedly arrested the detainee who later died in custody. The postmortem on the body revealed more than two dozen marks of injury.
When the bail application of the accused/applicant came up for hearing on Friday, Barrister Azizullah K. Shaikh submitted that the trial court had failed in implementing the orders of the bench and despite directions to the trial court to record the statement of the accused under section 342 of CrPC after the district attorney closed his side, were neglected and instead summons were issued against two persons under section 540 of CrPC.
The direction by the bench to decide the case within four weeks was also ignored, submitted Barrister Shaikh, saying the complainant side was resorting to delaying tactics.
Habibur Rasheed, standing counsel, represented the state, and the complainant was represented by Mehmood A. Qureshi.
Taking strong exception that its orders were not implemented, the bench enlarged the accused/applicant on bail.
Justice Muhammad Sadiq Leghari of the Sindh High Court granted bail to Ms Uzma Naz in the sum of Rs100,000 in the murder case of a boy.
The police arrested Uzma Naz, headmistress of a school in Orangi Town, in connection with the murder of Shakeel alias Kashif whose body was found on the roof of the school building on August 16,2002.
Her counsel moved the bail plea in the High Court and submitted that her name was not mentioned in the interim challan and the FIR. Later, the police implicated his client in the murder case. The court granted the bail application and ordered her to furnish a surety of Rs100,000.
The same bench disposed of the bail application of Ali Ahmed and directed the trial court to decide the appellant’s matter within two months.
The police arrested Ali Ahmed on a complaint of Iqbal Ahmed lodged at Saddar police station on February 20, 2000. The complainant stated that accused Ali Ahmed, who worked as a waiter in the hotel in Saddar where he was staying, came along with two of his accomplices in his room and snatched Rs59,730 and other valuables. — APP/PPI
