GUJRAT: The three murders of former Punjab law minister Chaudhry Muhammad Farooq and five others were awarded life-term on six counts by Sara-i-Alamgir Additional Sessions Judge Syed Irfan Haider on Saturday.

The judge also imposed a fine of Rs0.6 million to each of the convicted person while two other suspects -- Laiq Ahmed and Javed -- who are absconders, were also handed down life-term on two counts.

Those convicted are Asif, Sajjad and Bahadar and one of the nominated accused Raja Masood Sarwar had already been acquitted for lack of evidence while another accused Chaudhry Gulnawaz alias Gulla Sangia had been killed a few years back.

The former law minister, his two gunmen Zafar Iqbal and Sher Khan, headmaster Sufi Ashraf, Chaudhry Manzoor and Chaudhry Bashir had been killed while minister’s driver Shakoor, councilor Arshad Mirza and three passersby sustained injuries in an ambush near Dandi Dara area of Sara-i-Alamgir on Dec 29, 2002.

Chaudhry Muhammad Farooq had been the Punjab president of the then PML-J (Junejo) and was elected as an MPA in the 2002 general elections.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2017