May 30, 2008	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 24, 1429

KARACHI, May 29: A Sindh High Court division bench reserved on Thursday its judgments on cross-appeals moved by MQM (H) chairman Aamir Khan and two co-accused against their conviction and punishment and by the prosecution for enhancement of the sentences awarded to them by an anti-terrorism court.

Co-accused Tariq alias Bata and Kala Nazim were sentenced to life imprisonment for killing Anum Uzair and Mohammad Naeem of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement in Landhi during a 2003 by-election in NA 255. They were awarded shorter terms and fines on other counts. Aamir Khan was sentenced to 10 years for instigating and abetting the offence. All the accused were directed to pay Rs100,000 each to the legal heirs of the deceased.

The appellant submitted through Advocates M. Ilyas Khan, Umar Sial and Rasheed Nizamani that they were victims of political enmity. The FIR was lodged nine days after the occurrence and the accusations were cooked up to victimize political opponents, particularly Aamir Khan, who, according to the trial court itself, succeeded in casting some doubt on the version of the prosecution case and was, therefore, jailed only for 10 years.

Special public prosecutor Iqtidar Ali Hashmi said the case was based on the dying declaration of Mohammad Naeem, one of the victims, which carried great evidentiary value. He said all the accused deserved capital punishment.

A division bench consisting of Justices Mrs Qaiser Iqbal and Syed Mahmood Alam Rizvi reserved its judgments in the appeals after hearing arguments for and against.

Petition allowed

Another division bench consisting of Justices Munib Ahmed Khan and Syed Pir Ali Shah allowed a petition moved by Mst Lubna Rani against a notice issued to her by the Anti-Narcotics Force. She said a drug trafficking case was instituted against her in Peshawar in 2000. However, the case was quashed and she was acquitted by a special court in Peshawar.

The ANF had no objection to the discharge of the case against her. Arshad Iqbal, the main accused, was her husband but she successfully sued for dissolution of her marriage with him before her acquittal and a dissolution decree was granted by a Peshawar family court. Later she shifted to Karachi.

She received a notice from the ANF office in Karachi in March 2003 to appear before its investigators along with documents relating to her apartment in Gulistan-i-Jauhar. The force suspected that the flat was purchased with illicit drug money she received from her husband. She approached the high court in 2003 and her petition was admitted for regular hearing by a division bench.

As the petition came up for hearing on Thursday, her counsel, Adnan Karim, argued that having dropped all charges and withdrawn the case against the petitioner in the year 2000, the ANF was left with no authority to call her for interrogation or re-investigation on more or less the same charges.Justice Ali Sain Dino Metlo, meanwhile, acquitted Azhar Machhi, who had been convicted and sentenced to 11 years’ rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs100,000 by a sessions court for committing robbery and injuring a shopkeeper in Lea Market. Advocate Abdul Wahab Baloch submitted on behalf of the appellant that there was no evidence to connect the accused with the commission of the offence and the prosecution story was based on hearsay.

Construction stayed

Another division bench consisting of acting Chief Justice Azizullah M. Memon and Arshad Noor Khan directed the chief secretary to look into the construction of shopping plaza on a 300-square-yard amenity plot in North Nazimabad used as a parking lot.

The shopkeepers and residents of the adjoining area submitted through Advocate M. Yasin Khan Azad that the city district government, the Karachi Building Control Authority and the town nazim have expressed their ignorance about the construction. Four storeys had, meanwhile, been raised on the plot in violation of an earlier court order staying construction work.

The town nazim had been directed to ensure that no third-party interest was created in the property pending the hearing of the petition and inquiry by the chief secretary.

Tahir Plaza

The bench comprising Justices Mrs Qaiser Iqbal and Mahmood Alam Rizvi, meanwhile, directed the Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation to examine the internal power network of Tahir Plaza, which houses a number of lawyers’ chambers near the City Courts. In response to a petition moved by Advocate Fatima Jatoi, a KESC official appeared on Thursday and informed the bench that the corporation was ready to immediately resume power supply to the plaza but its internal network was out of order and a short-circuit may cause a fire outbreak.

The bench also summoned the Karachi Bar Association president and secretary to appear on June 4 to state whether any amount of the financial assistance received from the government for repair and renovation of lawyers’ offices on April 9 had been allocated to Tahir Plaza or lawyers owning offices in it.