KARACHI: SHC wants victim’s wife made party in LTF case
KARACHI, July 26: The Sindh High Court on Thursday directed the defence counsel for the defunct Lyari Task Force’s sacked chief Chaudhry Aslam to submit an amended title of the Mashooq Brohi murder case transfer application by making Lal Bibi, widow of Rasool Bux Brohi, a party.
Justice Muhammad Moosa K. Laghari issued the direction while hearing the transfer application of the Mashooq Brohi murder case from Nawabshah to Karachi filed by Mr Aslam, DSP Irfan Ali Bahadur and SHO of Shershah Syed Safdar Ali Shah.
Suspended SP Chaudhry Aslam had claimed having killed notorious dacoit Mashooq Brohi in a police encounter on July 12, 2006 in the Gadap police limits. However, the claim was rejected and a case against him and other police officials who had taken part in the encounter was registered at the Sakrand police station on a complaint of Lal Bibi.
Filing the transfer application under Section 526 of the CrPC, Chaudhry Aslam and others submitted that it was a settled principle of law that a case and a counter case be tried in one court to avoid any conflict of judgment.
The applicants’ counsel, M. Ilyas Khan and Mohammad Farooq, expressing lack of trust in the trial court at Nawabshah, said their clients lost all hopes of an impartial trial before the sessions judge of Nawabshah and prayed to the court to transfer the trial of the case from the sessions judge of Nawabshah to the sessions judge of Malir in Karachi.
It was alleged that the LTF arrested Rasool Bux in his house in Sakrand and later killed him in the Gadap area of Karachi in a fake encounter.
Alam Baloch murder case
The Sindh High Court on Thursday issued a notice to the Advocate-General of Sindh for Aug 7 on a transfer application of the former Sindh Irrigation Secretary Alam Baloch murder case from the district and sessions judge of Hyderabad to another court.
The SHC's bench comprising Justice Muhammad Moosa K. Laghari was hearing the application filed by Asif Ali Zardari, former senator and husband of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto who was involved in the case allegedly on political grounds.
On Sept 18, 1997 an FIR was lodged at the police station of Qasimabad, Hyderabad, under sections 302, 324 against Mr Zardari and others, while he was confined in the Central Prison in Karachi for their involvement in the murder of provincial secretary Alam Baloch and his guard Imdad Hussain in Hyderabad.
Later, he was granted bail by the SHC in the case on Dec 11, 1998.
The applicant’s counsel, Farooq H. Naek, submitted that a case pending for 10 years and charges were not framed on the accused till date by the trial court. Recently, Zawar Ahmed Khan Sherwani, DJ of Karachi East, also hearing the Mir Murtaza Bhutto murder case against Asif Zardari, was transferred to Hyderabad to try this case.
Expressing lack of trust in DJ Zawar Ahmed Khan Sherwani, the defence counsel said his client did not expect justice from him. He lost all hopes of a fair trial and prayed to the court to transfer the case from the court of the DJ of Hyderabad to any other court of competent jurisdiction.
Justice Muhammad Moosa K. Laghari, after hearing arguments of the defence counsel, issued a notice and fixed Aug 7 for the next hearing.
