KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court on Wednesday deferred its judgement in a case pertaining to the murder of a citizen by Rangers for the fourth time.

This time the defence lawyer informed the court that the jurisdiction of the court was challenged in the apex court.

Shahzad Masih, a soldier of the Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, has been charged with killing Ghulam Haider after his vehicle hit a motorcyclist in Shah Faisal Colony in June last year.

On Feb 11, judge of the ATC-I Bashir Ahmed Khoso reserved his judgement for pronouncement till Feb 25 after recording evidence of witnesses and final arguments from both sides.

However, the judgement was again postponed on Feb 25, and then on March 8, and then on March 17. Thereafter, it was fixed for April 16 for pronouncement.

However, the defence lawyer filed an application for adjournment on Wednesday submitting that a review petition was submitted in the Supreme Court against its earlier order passed during a suo motu notice to try this case under the anti-terror law.

Thus, the court deferred the judgement till May 3. Earlier, the trial court had dismissed an application of the defence seeking transfer of the case to a regular court.

A case was registered against the Rangers personnel under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Shah Faisal Colony police station.

Initially, the case was sent to a sessions judge for trial, but Section 7 of the ATA was incorporated and it was submitted to an anti-terrorism court in August last year as the Supreme Court had taken up the case. The apex court had also asked the trial court to decide the case within seven days.

Bail granted

Meanwhile, an anti-corruption court on Wednesday granted bail to a former official of the Pak-Arab Refinery Company in a case against the surety bond of Rs200,000.

Ferozee J. Cawasji, the then assistant managing director (finance) of Parco and incumbent chief executive of Pak-Arab Pipeline Company, along with other officials of Parco and Adamjee Insurance Company struck deals to ensure import of oil products, but they allegedly embezzled an amount of over Rs150 million through fraudulent means by falsification of documents and payment of kickbacks to Parco officials between 2005 and 2008, according to the prosecution.

The suspect through his counsel Shahadat Awan moved a bail application while additional director (legal) of the Federal Investigation Agency Bakhtiar Ahmed Channa did not oppose the plea.

The judge of special court of federal anti-corruption court-I Mohammad Azeem granted bail against the surety bond of Rs200,000.

The court ruled that it appeared that the name of the applicant was not found in the FIR and no specific role had been assigned to him. The offence for which the applicant was booked did not fall within the prohibitory clause of section 497 (when bail may be taken in case of non-bailable offence) of the criminal procedure code, it observed.

The case was lodged under Sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 477-A (falsification of accounts) and 109 (abetment) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 5 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act-II, 1947 at the FIA crime circle, Karachi.