KARACHI, Oct 8: A division bench of Sindh High Court, comprising Justice Ghulam Rabbani and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, on Wednesday dismissed a petition filed by the residents of Deh Jureji against the grant of lease of a plot to the Cotton Export Corporation and directed them to approach the Board of Revenue.
Petitioners Mohammad Baloch, Abdul Wahid and others in a petition against the Sindh Land Utilization Department and the CEC submitted that they are residents of Deh Jureji and had been making cultivation on the land since long.
They stated that 100 acres was wrongfully leased out to the respondents by the department’s high-ups, while they were original occupants and contested that the land can only be given in an open kachehry.
POLICEMAN’S APPEAL: A division bench of Sindh High Court, comprising Justice Wahid Bux Brohi and Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaffery, on Wednesday dismissed an appeal by a former policeman Saeed Shah against his conviction in a murder case and upheld the trial court verdict.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment by the additional district and sessions judge (South) on charge of killing a police Head Muharar on Sept 17, 1997. The court also awarded him a five-year RI on charge of injuring a complainant.
According to prosecution, police constable Rafique Ahmed lodged an FIR that on Feb 18, 1995, he and the applicant came to the City Courts PS after duty to deposit their official rifles. They asked the Head Muharar, Ghulam Shabbir, to deposit the arms and issue a slip.
The Muharar asked them to wait as he was going to see off his guest. The applicant, on refusal, got enraged and asked him to issue a slip otherwise he would kill him. An exchange of hot words took place between them. He opened fire on Ghulam Shabbir with his official SMG and killed him. The complainant, while trying to stop him, also received bullet injuries.
His appeal against conviction was heard before SHC’s division bench and the court after hearing arguments from both the sides dismissed the appeal and maintained the sentenced awarded to him by the trial court.
The court also dismissed a revision appeal by Ms Amna Bibi, widow of deceased Ghulam Shabbir, who prayed to the court to enhance the conviction and award death sentence to applicant in said case.
REVISION PETITIONS: A division bench of High Court of Sindh (SHC), comprising Justice Ghulam Nabi Soomro and Justice Muhammed Afzal Soomro, on Wednesday put off hearing of two accountability appeals filed by Choudhry Sharif, former Deputy Director of FIA Immigration, Constable Mukhtar and Hanif and three revision applications by Benamdars till Thursday morning.
Earlier, the court heard arguments by A. Q. Halepota, counsel for Choudhry Sharif. Co-accused Mukhtar is being represented by M. Ashraf Qazi while M.L. Shahani is appearing for accused Hanif.
The appellants/convicts have been sentenced to serve 14 years in prison and to pay a fine of Rs 100 million or in default to serve seven years more behind the bars by judge Qamaruddin Vohra of the Accountability Court-I, Karachi.
The court also ordered confiscation of all movable and immovable properties in the name of relatives and Benamdars. The appellants/applicants impugned the said judgement through two appeals and three criminal revision applications.
The applicants Shahbaz Sharif, Mohammed Israr Sharif and Bashiran Bibi prayed to the court to set aside the order of the ACC-I (12-12-2000) regarding confiscation of the property and also to expunge the remarks from the impugned judgement.
FIRING CASE: Justice Shabbir Ahmed of the Sindh High Court, who is also the administrative judge of anti-terrorism courts at Karachi, on Wednesday remanded an accused in Shoaib Khan firing case to the custody of the investigation police till Oct 14.
Earlier, the police produced accused Syed Asad Ali Shah with a remand request. He was arrested on Oct 6 according to police papers.
The police booked him under Section 302 for opening fire on a police van carrying local businessman Shoaib Khan from Anti-Terrorism Court to Malir district jail. Five policemen were killed in the said incident on May 26, 2001.
The AJ, after perusing the remand papers, remanded the accused to police custody till Oct 14.—PPI/APP
