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| 25 April 2004 | Sunday | 04 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425 |
Hashmi challenges conviction in LHC
ISLAMABAD, April 24: ARD President Makhdoom Javed Hashmi on Saturday challenged his conviction in the Rawalpindi Bench of the Lahore High Court and requested the bench to set aside his 23-year sentence awarded by a session court.
The 14-page appeal was filed on his behalf by advocate Muhammad Akram Sheikh in the high court in which he prayed to the court that the judgment passed by Islamabad District and Session Court on April 12 was manifestly against the law and not supported by any evidence.
Islamabad District and Session Judge Asad Raza, after holding trial inside the premises of the Adiyala Jail, Rawalpindi, had sentenced Javed Hashmi to 23 years jail and fined him Rs42,000 for inciting mutiny in the army.
"The findings recorded by the Sessions Judge are based on surmises, conjectures, misreading of the evidence and not on sound legal grounds," the petition said.
It further said the appellant was absolutely innocent and had been falsely and maliciously involved in the case, fabricated and concocted by the government agencies at the behest of a person who had unconstitutionally manipulated to take into his hands the writ of the government.
The petitioner said the prosecution had miserably failed to prove the guilt of the appellant and, therefore, the conviction of the appellant as recorded by the sessions judge was not at all sustainable.
The conviction was also not supported in any way by the legal evidence brought on record, the petitioner stated.
He prayed to the court that offence under Section 124-A (defaming the government and the army) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) was not only non-cognizable but there was no concept of registration of a case by the police under this section.
Cognizance of the case under this section could only be taken on a complaint instituted by the federal government and in the present case the federal government had not taken a decision to file the complaint against him.
The petitioner has also challenged the mode of trial by stating that in-camera trial in a secluded room of the Adiyala Central Jail was violative of the fundamental rights as guaranteed by the Constitution as well as by the UN Declaration of Human Rights 1948.
The petitioner also pleaded that the case against him was registered at the behest of state functionaries after nine days of the alleged commission of offence in the Cafeteria of the National Assembly at Police Station Secretariat Islamabad.
The delay of nine days had also not been explained in the FIR, he said, adding that against Column No 5 of the FIR as to the reasons for delay, words "without delay" were mentioned.
The case against Mr Hashmi could not have been registered by anyone for an incident taking place within the premises of the National Assembly except by the Speaker of the National Assembly who is designated as "custodian of the house" under the rules.
"No person except the speaker is competent to take cognizance or initiate any action whatsoever and the whole transaction of the registration of case, arrest of the appellant, his custody and torture and the subsequent trial is gravest encroachment on the functioning of Parliament and the speaker," the petitioner alleged.
The prosecution witnesses, he stated, had been planted by the prosecution and the basic allegation of abetting mutiny or attempting to seduce a soldier from duty was not disclosed in the evidence.
The petitioner alleged that the trial was conducted in a totally prejudicial manner to the State's interests and the judgment was decided to be announced at a point of time which coincided with major international events affecting the reputation and credibility of Pakistan and its democratic institutions.
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