KARACHI, Dec 13: Kunwar Khalid Younus, a leader of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and former member of the National Assembly, was acquitted on Thursday by an additional district and sessions court in the 75th case.

Judge Shamshad Qazi acquitted the Muttahida leader and 13 other partymen of all charges, including murder and attack on a police party, as the prosecution could not bring on record any incriminating evidence against the accused.

The case against Muttahida leaders and workers was registered on May 1, 1994, by the Korangi police under various sections of PPC.

The accused were charged with killing a man, Asif son of Jaffer Ali, during shootout with a police party.

Party chief Altaf Husain, Haroon Siddiqui, S. M. Mohiuddin, Prof A. K. Shams and Dr. Sagheer Ansari were declared absconders in the case.

The acquitted workers were Irfan, Taufeeq, Izhar, Mohammed Waseem, Mohammed Husain, Mohammed Yaseen, Amjad, Mohammed Rafique, Jawaid, Saeed, Mohammed Aslam and Mohammed Jameel. Rao Sharif, advocate, represented the accused.

The case was investigated by Saadullah Bangash, who had himself been booked for killing a man in an alleged fake encounter in Liyari and he is at present in judicial custody.

This was the 75th case against Kunwar Khalid Younus in which he had been acquitted as the prosecution completely failed to prove its case. As many as 18 cases against him are still pending in different courts.

The major dent in the case of the prosecution was caused following the statement of the victim’s father, Jaffer Ali, who deposed that his fatally wounded son had stated that he had been hit by a bullet fried by the police party.

REFERENCE: The Accountability court No 1, headed by Judge Dr Qamaruddin Bohra, put off the hearing of a corruption reference against a former chief of the Bankers’ Equity, Rauf B. Qadri, after the prosecution closed its side. The judge fixed Dec 21 for recording the statement of the accused.