November 15, 2008	Saturday	Ziqa'ad 16, 1429

KARACHI, Nov 14: A former superintendent of police who faced trial for his alleged involvement in Mir Murtaza Bhutto’s murder was acquitted on Friday due to a lack of evidence against him.

Mir Murtaza Bhutto, leader of his faction of the Pakistan People’s Party known as PPP-Shaheed Bhutto, was killed along with his close aide, Ashique Hussain Jatoi, and six other workers and supporters in an alleged shootout with police on Sept 20, 1996 near his Clifton residence.

Shakeeb Qureshi, the then superintendent of police, had moved through his counsel an application under Section 265-K (power of the court to acquit an accused at any stage) of the criminal procedure code in court for his acquittal.

Judge Abdul Rahman Bhatti of the additional district and sessions court-I (east) pronounced the verdict after recording arguments from both sides.

The judge observed that the court, after examining prosecution papers, found no evidence that could connect the accused with the alleged offence. Since there was no probability of conviction, the court allowed the application and acquitted Shakeeb Qureshi in the case, the judge observed.

Earlier, the applicant’s counsel argued that the prosecution failed to produce ample evidence against his client to prove his involvement in the case despite a lapse of over 11 years while the case was reinvestigated on a court order and the investigation officer submitted an amended charge-sheet, which said that no evidence was found against his client. He pleaded for Mr Qureshi’s acquittal.

The counsel for Ashique Hussain Jatoi’s widow and Sarfaraz Khan Tanoli argued that the acquittal plea was not maintainable at this stage. He asserted that the prosecution had presented enough evidence against the applicant’s involvement in the murder.

He further submitted that the applicant had gone abroad shortly after the incident and that the court had declared him absconder. He returned home after a period of about 11 years and eventually the court concerned had condoned his personal appearance in the hearings.

He said that the accused then managed to get bail with the help of the present government despite the fact that bail could not be granted once the judicial process under Section 87 (proclamation for persons absconding) and Section 88 (attachment of property of person absconding) of the CrPC was completed.

However, the special public prosecutor, Mazhar Qayyum, did not oppose the acquittal plea and said that there was no evidence against the applicant in the last charge-sheet while the members of investigating team also testified that the accused was innocent as no clue was found to his involvement in the case.

Senior police officials, including Shoaib Suddle, Wajid Durrani, Masood Sharif, Shahid Hayat, Rai Mohammed Tahir, Shabbir Ahmed Qaimkhani, Shakeeb Qureshi and Agha Mohammed Jameel, had been nominated as accused in the case.

Another accused Asif Ali Zardari, who is now the country’s president, was acquitted by a single-member bench of the Sindh High Court after accepting his revision plea on April 9, 2008.