|
|
| October 30, 2007 | Tuesday | Shawwal 17, 1428 |
KARACHI: SHC refuses to quash charges against four policemen: Mir Murtaza Bhutto murder
KARACHI, Oct 29: The Sindh High Court declined on Monday to quash charges against four police officers facing trial for the murder of Mir Murtaza Bhutto, son of the late prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, in an encounter near his Clifton residence on September 20, 1996.
Applicants Dr Shoaib Suddle, Wajid Ali Khan Durrani, Rai Tahir and Shahid Hayat said they were exonerated following reinvestigation of the case. The encounter was found to be genuine and a supplementary challan declaring them innocent was submitted by police. However, the special public prosecutor objected to the supplementary challan and opposed the quashment of charges against them. The trial court dismissed their application for acquittal.
Justice Rehmat Hussain Jafferi, who heard arguments for and against the applications, observed that the police have the authority to reinvestigate a case and submit a supplementary challan. However, a supplementary challan does not nullify the FIR and it is for the trial court to consider fresh evidence and examine new witnesses. The witnesses could be produced by the defence if the prosecution refused to believe their testimony. He said the supplementary challan should be brought on record and the trial court should decide whether to try the accused or not.
Meanwhile, the hearing of former federal minister Asif Ali Zardari’s plea for acquittal in the case was adjourned to November 5. Advocate Farooq H. Naek, the applicant’s counsel, said in his detailed arguments that the prosecution had failed to connect the accused with the commission of the offence. There was no evidence against him and no role could be assigned to him.
There was, the counsel said, no possibility of conviction of the accused even if the material brought on record by the prosecution was believed to be true. Mr Zardari, he argued, was well within his rights to seek acquittal under Section 265-K of the criminal procedure code but his application was dismissed by the trial court.
The hearing of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto’s plea for membership of the National Assembly was on Monday adjourned due to the non-availability of a member of the five-judge bench.
Ms Bhutto had initially approached the Sindh High Court in 2002 against the rejection of her nomination papers by the returning officer for general as well woman’s seat because of the accountability cases instituted against her. She moved an urgent application earlier this month following the promulgation of the National Reconciliation Ordinance. She said all cases against her and her conviction in absentia had been quashed and she should be declared elected to a reserved seat from her party quota of women’s seats.
Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed constituted a new five-member bench headed by him to hear the petition on October 29. However, Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, a member of the bench, was on leave on Monday and the hearing was adjourned with date to be fixed later. Justices Mushir Alam, Rehmat Hussain Jafferi and Faisal Arab are other members of the bench.
The Sindh High Court summoned on Monday the DIG (Investigations), the Central Prison superintendent and two others to explain why a detainee was not being released despite quashment of the criminal case registered against him.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah had ordered the quashment of a belatedly registered case against Mohammad Shahid Rind on October 23. The police said he was not required in any other case. But when the detainee’s uncle went to the Central Prison to secure his release, he was told by the jail authorities that they had received an order from an anti-terrorism court for Shahid’s production in a kidnapping-for-ransom case on November 3. The petitioner’s counsel, Adnan Karim, moved an application in the high court.
The bench expressed its displeasure over the conduct of police and jail authorities. Deputy Attorney-General Rizwan Ahmed Siddiqui and Additional Advocate-General Zubair Quraishi, who had supported the detainee’s release on Oct 23, also expressed their disappointment. The bench asked the respondent officers to appear and explain their position on October 31.
The Sindh High Court has barred a man who allegedly snatched his five-year-old son from his divorced wife from leaving abroad with or without the abductee.
The order was passed by Justice Yasmin Abbasy on Monday on an application moved by Ms Fizza Rizvi, who was given custody of her child, Abbas Nurie, after divorce by Ghulam Muhammad Nurie.
She said under a 2006 consent order Abbas was not to be removed from the SHC territorial jurisdiction and was to be brought to her counsel’s office on every Friday afternoon for meetings with his father.
She was bringing Abbas to her counsel’s office in Defence on October 26 when she was accosted by her former husband and four other armed men outside the office.
They snatched Abbas after manhandling her and whisked him away in a car.
The applicant said she lodged an FIR with the Boat Basin police and also informed the FIA immigration authorities.
She apprehended that Ghulam Muhammad Nurie would take or send Abbas abroad to frustrate the custody order in her favour.
Their names should be placed on the exit control list to foil any attempt to remove Abbas from the SHC jurisdiction and deprive her of her son’s custody.
Justice Abbasy ordered that the names of Abbas and Ghulam Muhammad Nurie be placed on the ECL and fixed October 31 for further hearing of the case.
|
|
