KARACHI: High court dismisses plea for quashment: Custodial death
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Aug 24: The Sindh High Court dismissed on Wednesday a petition moved by a former station house officer for quashment of a murder case against him for allegedly killing a youth in custody.
The case was registered by the Kalakot police station on a complaint lodged by Ms Nasreen Akhtar with the area magistrate on Feb 14, 2004. She said that (the then) SHO of Kalakot, Naeem Khan and assistant sub-inspector Atif Shahzada, arrested her teenaged son Yusuf alias Kala from her residence on Feb 3, 2004.
She went to the police station, with her other children, to find out why Yusuf had been taken into custody.
SHO Naeem and ASI Atif, the complainant said, told her that Yusuf had been arrested in a narcotics case and she should pay them Rs 30,000 for his release.
Two other boys, held on the same charge, had already been let off on payment of illegal gratification by their parents, the police officials told her.
The complainant expressed her inability to pay the amount as she was raising her children with difficulty after the death of her husband.
She was not allowed to see Yusuf, who was mercilessly tortured. He cried in pain, but she was not allowed to see her. The accused got Yusus admitted to the Civil Hospital when his condition deteriorated. She received his body from the hospital on Feb 4, 2004.
Contesting the petition, Advocate Akhtar Jamal submitted on behalf of the complainant that the case was registered after a thorough investigation by the police. The trial, he said, was in progress when co-accused Atif secured release on bail and disappeared. He had been declared an absconder.
Advocate Khwaja Nveed Ahmed, earlier, argued that there was no evidence against the petitioner ex-SHO. Justice Mohammad Sadiq Leghari dismissed the petition after hearing the arguments.
STAY OF POLLS: The Sindh High Court dismissed on Wednesday a petition seeking stay of elections in four newly-constituted union councils of taluka Garhi Yasin in the district of Shikarpur.
A division bench observed after hearing Advocate-General Anwar Mansoor Khan and Advocate Asif Razzak Soomro, petitioner’s counsel, that the delimitation had prima facie been done in accordance with the provisions of Section 6 of the Sindh Local Government Ordinance. Petitioner Agha Sameer Durrani had complained that the union councils had been formed after unlawfully detaching four ‘dehs’ from the taluka of Rato Dero in the district of Larkana. The petitioner had also sought prosecution of the election authorities for holding polls in violation of a court order.
The bench, which consisted of Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Mohammad Afzal Soomro, observed that the provincial government was empowered by Section 6 of the SLGO to alter the UC limits subject to certain conditions, which had apparently been met. Electoral process could not be suspended at this stage and the petitioner was free to agitate the issue in separate proceedings.
AL-AKHTAR TRUST: Another division bench adjourned the hearing of a petition against the freezing of bank accounts of Al Akhtar Trust at the request of a federal attorney.
Five bank accounts operated by the trust were frozen in May 2003 with those of other organizations under a resolution passed by the UN security council at the behest of the US administration. The trust was alleged to have extended financial support to Al Qaeda and Taliban. The freezing was ordered by the ministry of finance and the State Bank.
The trust submitted in a petition by its vice-president, Maulana Ibrahim, that it was a welfare organization working for the relief of draught and flood victims and the action was a violation of the fundamental rights of its settlers, trustees and beneficiaries.
