KARACHI: The Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court on Thursday appointed Justice Salahuddin Panhwar to monitor the trial of the cases pertaining to the May 12, 2007 mayhem.

A notification issued by the registrar of the SHC in this connection states that in pursuance of a division bench’s judgement regarding the May 12 incidents, the chief justice has appointed Justice Panhwar to monitor 65 cases through monthly progress reports from the trial courts.

It may be recalled that the two-judge bench of the SHC in its Sept 9 judgement had directed the provincial government to establish a tribunal of inquiry to probe the May12 mayhem and fix responsibility after finding out perpetrators and their accomplices.

It had also asked the Sindh government to constitute a joint investigation team (JIT) as required under the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 to trace out the persons involved in the cases in which police had filed A-Class (unknown or untraceable accused) reports and to further investigate all other cases pertaining to the ugly incidents that had taken place on May 12, 2007.

Moreover, the division bench had requested the chief justice of the Sindh High Court to appoint a sitting judge of the SHC to monitor trial of around 65 cases about May 12 incidents through monthly reports from the trial courts concerned.

Ex-SHO’s name on ECL

The SHC was informed on Thursday that the police had recommended to put the name of a former SHO, who was also an absconder in the Naqeebullah murder case, on the Exit Control List over his alleged involvement in a missing person case.

An investigating officer through a report told a two-judge bench of the SHC headed by Justice Niamatullah Phulpoto, who was hearing dozens of identical petitions about missing persons, that the computerised national identity card of the then SHO of the Sachal police station, Shoaib Shaikh alias Shooter, had been blocked.

The IO further contended that the police had recommended to place the name of the former SHO on the ECL.

Justice Phulpoto directed the IO to come up with a progress report on Nov 8.

Petitioner Mohammad Shafi approached the SHC and submitted that his two sons, Mohammad Saif and Yusuf, were taken away from a hotel in Scout Society in Sept 2014, adding that later, Yusuf was released, but the whereabouts of his other son remained unknown and he had thereafter petitioned the SHC.

However, the petitioner contended that Shoaib had approached him to withdraw the petition and in return promised to release his son, but the former SHO backtracked and demanded Rs500,000 for the release.

Published in Dawn, October 5th, 2018