ISLAMABAD, April 22: The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down bail application of three persons accused of murdering former Sindh governor Hakim Mohammed Said.

The court also ordered the office to fix the state appeals for final hearing on May 5.

Three accused, Nadeem Ahmad, Zubair Hussain and Abu Imran Pasha, had approached the Supreme Court that they had been acquitted by the Sindh High Court but were put behind bars again on a Supreme Court order passed on Nov 1, 2001.

Senior advocate Akram Shaikh, representing the accused, asked the apex court to grant bail to the applicants as they had been acquitted by the Sindh High Court.

The SC bench which heard the bail application consisted of Chief Justice Shaikh Riaz Ahmad, Justice Mian Mohammad Ajmal and Justice Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi.

The Supreme Court on Nov 1, 2001, on an appeal of the Sindh government, had issued non-bailable warrants of eight accused in the Hakim Said murder case with the direction that the accused be kept in central jail Karachi till the decision of the apex court on the state appeals against their acquittal.

The Sindh government had challenged the SHC judgment passed on Aug 18, 2001, acquitting all the nine accused, giving them the benefit of the doubt.

An anti-terrorist court had awarded death sentence to nine accused for murdering Hakim Mohammed Said, Hakim Abdul Qadir and Wali Mohammad.