KARACHI: The Sindh High Court issued on Monday another notice to Bilal Khar, the prime suspect in a 2000 case pertaining to an acid attack on his wife, directing him to submit his reply in a petition seeking fresh investigation into the case.

A two-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar that had earlier directed the Pubjab police chief to ensure the service of a notice on Mr Khar, son of former Punjab governor Ghulam Mustafa Khar, adjourned the matter to Sept 29.

The petition was filed by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research, Shirkat Gah and Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum.

According to the petitioners, Bilal Khar, a former Punjab MPA, was acquitted because the four eyewitnesses in the case refused to identify him in court due to his alleged influence.

The petitioners’ counsel, Advocate Faisal Siddiqui, submitted in the petition that the case should be reinvestigated under the Criminal Law (Second Amendment) Act, 2011.

He said that Khar, who attacked her wife Fakhra Younus in May 2000, was arrested after a delay of nearly two years and finally acquitted by a sessions judge for lack of evidence.

The counsel said that the judgement was based on erroneous information and it was given without fulfilling legal requirements.

He said that it was an illegal judgement and asked the court to order the reopening of the case.

Khar was acquitted by the district and sessions court (south) on Dec 16, 2003.

The judge had exonerated him from all charges on an application filed for his acquittal under Section 265-K of the criminal procedure code.

He was booked by the Napier police on a complaint of Shahida Malik, the mother-in-law of Fakhra’s sister, Ms Kiran.

The complainant had accused Bilal Khar of visiting his estranged wife at her apartment at about 2.30pm on May 14, 2000 and throwing acid at her before fleeing the flat. Some other relatives were present at the apartment and one of them, Irfan Malik, got injured in the attack, the complainant had claimed. Mr Malik is the husband of Ms Kiran.

The accused was arrested on Nov 1, 2002 in Muzaffargarh and enlarged on bail on March 22, 2003.

The court exonerated him as the prosecution could not bring on record any incriminating evidence. The prosecution had suffered a major blow during the trial when the complainant and Mr Malik, appearing as prosecution witnesses, deposed that the defendant was not the man who had thrown acid.

Earlier, the first two prosecution witness, Ms Kiran, and her brother-in-law, Amir Malik, were declared hostile on the plea that Khar was not the attacker.

Ms Fakhra committed suicide by jumping off the sixth floor of her apartment in Italy on March 17, 2012. She was sent abroad for a plastic surgery.

During a previous hearing, the court had issued a notice to Mr Khar through the Punjab police chief after it was informed that he was arrested by the Kot Addu police in an attack case and currently was in custody of the Punjab police.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2014