KARACHI, April 6: A division bench of the Sindh High Court comprising Justice Mohammad Afzal Soomro and Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaffery on Friday dismissed appeal against conviction in a kidnapping for ransom case and upheld trial court order.
Zulfiqar Ali, Zafar Iqbal and Sajid Iqbal were sentenced to life imprisonment by Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) Karachi on March 10, 2005 finding them guilty. The court also ordered to confiscate their movable and immovable property to the extent Rs100,000 each.
They were charged with kidnapping eight-year-old Komal and Jahanzeb, 7, childrens of Nazim Siddiqui from Gulshan-i-Iqbal Karachi on December 10, 2001 while they were going to school with their mother and demanded Rs2500, 000 as ransom from their family.
They received Rs250,000 as part of ransom but did not release the abductees and shifted them to Rawalpindi. Later, after about 15 months on March 24, 2003 police arrested the accused and recovered the children from the house of Zulfiqar Ali.
Submitting appeal against conviction defence counsel Abdul Qadir Halepota stated that applicants were innocent and falsely implicated in the case. He prayed to set aside trial court order and acquit his clients, which was opposed by the state counsel.
The SHC's division bench after hearing arguments of both counsels and perusal of records of case, for reason to be recorded separately, dismissed appeal and upheld trail court orders.
EX-MINISTER: The SHC allowed former Sindh minister for law and parliamentary affairs, Pir Mazharul Haq to proceed abroad for medical treatment and perform Umrah.
A division bench comprising Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Justice Ali Sain Dino Metlo was hearing an application moved by the former minister seeking permission to travel abroad.
The bench allowed the petitioner to proceed, for three months, to the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia for medical treatment and Umrah.
It may be noted here that the main petition referred by the former minister was also pending before the SHC with the pray for declaring the action of the respondents taken on April 30, 1997 prohibiting the petitioner from proceeding abroad by placing his name on Exit Control List (ECL) is malafide.
Petition submitted that Mazharul Haq was restrained from traveling abroad without issuing any show-cause notice or affording an opportunity of hearing nor assigning any valid reason.—PPI/APP
