KARACHI, Feb 14: The hearing of three appeals arising out of judgement in Daniel Pearl kidnapping and murder case was put off till Feb 27 by an Anti-Terrorism Appellate (ATA) bench of High Court of Sindh (SHC), comprising Justice Mohammad Afzal Soomro and Justice Rahmat Hussain Jafferi here on Tuesday.

The defence counsel, including Rai Bashir advocate, Abdul Waheed Katpar, Khawaja Naveed advocate and Special Public Prosecutor Raja Qureshi were present before the court when the appeals were taken up by the bench. Assistant Advocate General Habib Ahmed represented the state.

As the defence side expressed inability to proceed with the case due to pre-occupation, the bench put off hearing till Feb 27 giving a final and last chance to defence to proceed with the case.

The bench said that appeals would be heard on daily basis from Feb 27 and no adjournment would be allowed on whatsoever ground.

The bench was hearing three appeals, one filed by Ahmed Omer Shaikh assailing death sentence awarded to them, and second by other three accused namely, Adil Shaikh, Fahad Naseem and Salman Saquib who were sentenced to life terms. The third appeal was filed by the state seeking enhancement of life terms awarded to three co-accused.

The same bench also accorded last opportunity to Ataullah and Azam, alleged terrorists of Lashkar-i-Jhangvi accused in the murder case of Ehtesham-uddin Haider, brother of former Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider.

The bench was seized with the hearing of a criminal revision application filed by the state against an order of an Anti-Terrorism Court which declined trial of the case and remanded it to a sessions’ court.—APP/PPI