KARACHI: Asif’s absence condoned in Justice Nizam case
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, July 16: The district and sessions judge, East, Nisar Mohammed Shaikh, adjourned on Saturday the hearing of the Justice Nizam murder case against Asif Ali Zardari and three others on an application by Mr Zardari’s counsel.
Defence counsel Shahadat Awan prayed the court to condone the absence of his client as he was sick and under treatment in the US. The judge granted his application and fixed Sept 16 for the next hearing.
The defence counsel stated that Mr Zardari had been under treatment since July 2005. He said recently his client had started feeling chest pain on moderate exertion and a stress thallium was positive for re-blockage in his coronary arteries.
Mr Awan submitted that the defendant needed cardiac catheterization and possibly another angioplasty in future.
He told the court that his client had been advised by his doctor not to leave the US for a minimum of six months and complete the medical treatment. The defence counsel also placed on record a fresh medical certificate by the doctor.
Justice Nizam Ahmed and his son Nadim Ahmed, a lawyer, were shot dead in an attack on June 10, 1996, near their house in PECHS. The complainant, Group Captain (Retd) Sikandar, brother-in-law of Justice Nizam Ahmed, lodged an FIR of the incident at the Ferozabad police station.
The killings were attributed to a dispute over a plot adjacent to the Awami Markaz as Justice Nizam Ahmed had opposed its commercialization and illegal allotment stated to be purchased by Javed Akhtar Pirzada as a front man of Asif Ali Zardari, an accused in the case.
Asif Zardari, Akhtar Javed Pirzada, Bilal Shaikh and Babar Sindhu are facing charges of double murder.
Meanwhile, the additional district and sessions judge, South, Munawwar Sultana, issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of former Sindh police chief Rana Maqbool Ahmed, former city police chief Farooq Amin Qureshi and others in a case pertaining to an attempt on the life of Mr Asif Ali Zardari.
The judge ordered the police to arrest the former IGP, former DIG, former chief of defunct Ehtesab Cell, Saifur Rehman, his brother Mujeebur Rehman and SP Najaf Mirza, who were booked by the Artillery Maidan police in the case on the order of the court.
The court had ordered registration of a case against them on an application filed by Mr Zardari, who alleged that an attempt was made on his life on the orders of the accused when he was in the police custody for interrogation in the Justice Nizam murder case.
The judge ordered the police to produce the accused before the court on Aug 12.
The judge also ordered the investigation officer, Mohammed Sarwer Khan, to submit the final charge-sheet till the next date of hearing.
Mr Zardari submitted in his application that later he was implicated in the Justice Nizam murder case. He stated that the court had granted bail before arrest to him on March 12, 1999, in the Mir Murtaza murder case, but the police detained him at Civil Lines police station, where he was severely tortured.
He said the investigators lodged two cases of attempt to commit suicide against him to save their skin. He, however, said that he was acquitted in the cases.
He prayed the court to order the registration of attempt to murder case against the former IGP, Sindh, former DIG, Karachi, and others. The court granted his application and the accused were booked in the case.
KIDNEY THEFT: Dr Kashif Mateen, who was booked and arrested for stealing a kidney from a patient during surgery at a hospital, was further remanded to judicial remand.
The judicial magistrate, Central, Amir Awan, sent the suspected doctor to jail till July 22 and ordered the investigation of officer to submit the final charge-sheet in the case till the next date of hearing.
Meanwhile, the magistrate also recorded statements of Dr Inamullah and paramedic Abid under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
The two witnesses stated that they did not know if the suspect had removed the kidney of the patient.
Dr Mateen has been accused of stealing a healthy kidney from a patient, Mohammad Kashif, during a surgical operation on May 7.
The complainant patient, who lodged the FIR against the doctor with the Taimuria police, alleged that instead of removing gall-bladder, the doctor removed his kidney. The doctor, who was arrested on Saturday, was remanded to police initially for two days.
