March 18, 2008	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 9, 1429

KARACHI, March 17: An anti-terrorism court acquitted on Monday former provincial minister Imtiaz Ahmed Shaikh and others for lack of evidence against them in a kidnap for ransom case.

Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch of the ATC-V pronounced the verdict after recording final arguments on an acquittal application moved by the defence counsel under Section 265-K of the Criminal Procedure Code.

Section 265-K, which deals with the power of court to acquit accused at any stage, says: “Nothing in this chapter shall be deemed to prevent a court from acquitting an accused and for reasons to be recorded, it considers that there is no probability of the accused being convicted of any offence.”

In its judgment, the court observed that the prosecution failed to produce any solid evidence against the accused and remained unsuccessful in proving the involvement of the accused in the case. With this observation, the court acquitted Mr Shaikh, Ateeq Ahmed Siddiqui, Agha Asghar Ali, Nasir Mahmood, Mahfooz Ahmed and Mohammad Zakir.

Earlier, defence counsel M.R. Syed argued that his clients were falsely implicated in the case and added that the incident had taken place in June 2003, while the FIR was lodged in 2005, nearly two years after the incident. To shore up his argument, he referred to the investigation officer’s statement that the case was full of doubts.

The defence counsel said that Zafar Iqbal, the complainant, had a close relationship with the former chief minister of Sindh, Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim, who developed some political differences with Imtiaz Shaikh. In this situation, he said, the police lodged an FIR against his clients at the behest of the former chief minister.

He concluded his arguments with the remarks that his clients were innocent and pleaded for their acquittal.

Special Public Prosecutor Mazhar Qayyum appeared in the case on the behalf of the state.

According to the prosecution, Mohammad Umer Iqbal, son of Zafar Iqbal, was allegedly kidnapped on June 28, 2003 at the behest of Imtiaz Shaikh from his house in the limits of Korangi police station.

The kidnappers demanded a ransom of Rs0.7 million from the victim’s family. The complainant alleged that he had paid the ransom amount to the accused in the presence of Mr Shaikh.

On the complaint of Zafar Iqbal, a case (FIR 121/2005) was registered under Section 365-A of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Korangi police station.

Section 365-A of the PPC pertains to kidnapping or abduction for extorting property, valuable security, etc. It is punishable with death or imprisonment for life and also involves forfeiture of the convict’s property.

Last week, Imtiaz Shaikh was acquitted by a special anti-corruption court in a land scam case. The former minister along with his brother, Maqbool Shaikh, were being tried on charges of making “unauthorised and illegal transfers and allotment of around 1,700 acres in Korangi areas to private parties at throwaway prices”. The judge said he based the acquittal decision on lack of evidence.