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KARACHI, Aug 9: The judicial magistrate, South, Ghulam Murtaza Baloch, reserved on Thursday an order on the bail application of civil rights campaigner Syed Iqbal Kazmi in the dud cheques cases.
After hearing the final arguments, the judicial magistrate fixed Friday, Aug 10, for the pronouncement of his order.
Mr Kazmi alleged that he was falsely implicated in the bogus cheques cases and claimed that deputy superintendent police (DSP) Zahid Hussein and station investigation officer (SIO) of the Darakhshan police station, Munir Ahmed Chandio, came to his office and obtained his signatures on the cheques by force.
“I tried to convince the police officials that I am not involved in the business deals,” he said, “but they did not listen and said that those involved had shared a portion of the office with me.” He added that he had informed his bank to stop the payment, which it had done.
Referring to the registration of cases against him, Mr Kazmi told the court that the police kept all the cases secret and did not take action. The police claimed that he was absconding but, said Mr Kazmi, “I regularly visited the courts and other offices where I used to meet police officials and none of them arrested me.” As proof, the defendant produced before the court photographs showing him with police officials at various social welfare functions. “When I came to know about the registration of such cases, I approached additional home secretary Mujahid Hussain and complained against the police officials,” he said, “who assured me that all the cases will be quashed.”
The civil rights campaigner also submitted on Thursday an application under Section 22-A of the Code of Criminal Procedures (CrPC) to the court of district and sessions judge South, Zaheeruddin Ahmed S. Leghari, for the registration of an FIR against the Adviser to the Chief Minister Sindh on Home Affairs, Waseem Akhtar, and police officials in the Aug 1, 2007, case of the kidnapping and torture of Mr Kazmi’s wife. Also named in the application are deputy superintendent police (DSP) Zahid Hussain Shah, sub-inspector Niaz Ahmed and Hanif Memon.
The court transferred the case to the court of additional district and sessions judge Mohammad Azim, who summoned in this regard the station house officer (SHO) of the Defence police station on August 11.
Mr Kazmi, who is being kept at the District Jail Malir as an under-trial prisoner, stated that on August 1, he was brought to the Sindh High Court to attend the hearing of petition D-1373/7 when the jail superintendent informed him about a mishap with his family.
“My wife Shazia, alias Sadia Kazmi, informed me that she and her cousin Mohammed Imran Shehzad had been in a rickshaw on the way to the SHC when four unidentified and armed men in a jeep intercepted, blindfolded and kidnapped them from Defence Library,” stated Mr Kazmi. He said that his wife and Mr Shehzad arrived at the SHC at 11am and told the entire story to a division bench comprising Chief Justice of the SHC, Sabihuddin Ahmed. The kidnappers had asked them to withdraw the petition against the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussein, and threatened that they would be killed otherwise. Mr Kazmi added that the kidnappers had snatched a case containing Rs20,000 and some important documents from his wife and dropped them near the Clifton beach.
“I complained to the capital city police officer (CCPO) on August 8, who had come to the SHC to attend the petition regarding the May 12 mayhem, but he did not help register the FIR,” said Mr Kazmi.
The applicant submitted that both petitions, D-1373/7 and D-1144/7 in the SHC, were on record that allegedly, the MQM was bent upon eliminating him and added that his complete statement in this regard was recorded by a larger bench of the SHC on Aug 8.
