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| April 8, 2006 | Saturday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 9, 1427 |
SC rejects Pan Am hijacker’s appeal
ISLAMABAD, April 7: The Supreme Court on Friday rejected the appeal of a Palestinian hijacker against his over-detention despite completing sentence. A three-member bench, comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan and Justice Syed Jamshed Ali, dismissed the appeal after the court was informed that the Lebanese government had accepted the nationality of the convict but did not dispatch his travelling documents to materialise his deportation.
At the last hearing, the court had asked the federal government to submit a reply in a habeas corpus petition filed by Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim alias Fahad Ali, who claimed to be a Palestinian. He was arrested by FIA on September 5, 1986 for his involvement in the hijacking of the American airliner, which landed at the Jinnah International Airport.
In his appeal, the hijacker pleaded that he was still being kept behind the bars despite completing his term.
On Friday, Deputy Attorney General Nasir Saeed Shaikh told the court that earlier no country was accepting the convict and even his nationality was in doubt but now Lebanon had accepted his nationality.
Though the Lebanese government has been requested to send his travelling documents so that he could be deported, the Government of Pakistan has not yet received any such document.
Assistant Advocate General Punjab Afshan Ghazanfar told the court that the hijacker was tried by a special court in Adiala Jail for hijacking the aircraft.
The trial court awarded him capital sentence with a fine of Rs610,000. However, in 1988 his death sentence was converted into life imprisonment through a presidential order. He had completed his term, after remission, on June 11, 2001 but is still behind the bars.
Later, a Federal Review Board also extended his post-term detention in jail for three months, which was still continuing. The federal review board is likely to decide his fate whenever it meets again.
Taxi driver murder case: The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the arrest of a constable of Islamabad police for his alleged involvement in the murder of a taxi driver early this year.
A three-member bench, comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan and Justice Syed Jamshed Ali, while hearing a complaint of Naseem Shahid, the widow of the taxi driver, expressed its displeasure over police investigations and their report in this regard.
The court directed the capital police to consider constable Abid of Sabzi Mandi Police Station Islamabad principal suspect in the case and initiate investigations.
Naseem Shahid, 24, who converted to Islam from Christianity, had accused the police of showing reluctance in registering an FIR against the murder of her husband Shahid.
Her tent house had been set on fire in February 2005. The fire killed her five years old daughter, and seriously injured two minor sons, her husband and herself.
On Friday, the apex court directed the police to register the case of Naseem Shahid and submit to its registrar, progress report on daily basis. The case will again be taken up on April 21.
In her complaint, Naseem Shahid contended that police constable Abid came to her house on February 13, 2006, and took Shahid on his cab.
Shahid had to record a statement before an anti-terrorist court on February 16 in connection with a case relating to the burning of his tent house in which he lost his daughter.
Next morning, police informed Naseem that Shahid had been wounded seriously in a road accident, but when she rushed to the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), she learnt that her husband was in fact shot dead in the wee hours of February 14.
However, in a report compiled by Superintendent of Police (SP) Investigations Ashfaq Ahmed and Deputy Superintendent Police (DSP), Industrial Area Circle, Jamil Hashmi, the police claimed that a gang of robbers killed Shahid after he put up resistance, while constable Abid who was in the front seat survived. The robbers also sprayed bullets on the car of a senior military officer’s son, the report said.
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