22 January 2004	Thursday	29 Ziqa'ad 1424

KARACHI, Jan 21: The Sindh High Court asked appellant Ahmed Omar Shaikh's counsel on Wednesday to move an application if he wanted to agitate the issue of the alleged shifting of his client from the Hyderabad prison and seek his production in the court.

The appellant was sentenced to death in the Daniel Pearle murder case by a Hyderabad anti-terrorist court. Three co- accused, Salman Saqib, Shaikh Adil and Fahd Naseem were awarded life terms. The convicts were also to pay Rs 500,000 each as fine and Rs 2 million to the widow of their victim, Mariane Pearle. The convicts sought acquittal in their appeals while the prosecution challenged the ATC judgment for not awarding the capital punishment to the three co-accused.

As the appeals came up for hearing on Wednesday, only Advocate Abdul Waheed Katpar was present for Omar Shaikh. He rose to complain to the appellate bench, which consisted of Justices Ghulam Nabi Soomro and Azizullah M. Memon, that his client had been shifted from prison and requested that he be ordered to be produced in the court. The bench asked him to put in an application and adjourned the appeals to Feb 17 for non- availability of the counsel for other appellants.