KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Wednesday set aside death sentence awarded by an antiterrorism court to Faisal Mehmood alias Faisal Mota, the prime accused in 2011 murder case of broadcast journalist Wali Khan Babar, and ordered retrial of the case in the relevant lower court.

The Larkana bench of the SHC comprising Justice Junaid Ghaffar and Justice Omar Siyal after hearing arguments from both sides came up with the judgment to overturn his death sentence that was awarded in 2014.

Faisal Mota was sentenced to death in absentia by an antiterrorism court in March 2014 for masterminding the murder of Wali Babar in 2011.

The convict had filed a petition in the SHC against capital punishment handed down to him by the ATC. 

Faisal was arrested along with many others during a raid in and around the MQM headquarters, Nine Zero, and the Khurshid Begum Memorial Hall in Azizabad in March 2015.

In his arguments, the counsel for the suspect, Amir Mansoob Qureshi, assailed the capital punishment awarded to him in absentia while arguing that death sentence could not be awarded in absentia according to Sections 21-L and 31-A of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

He argued that the convict must refer to the trial court under the law in case of punishment in absentia. However, the counsel said, his client was unable to refer to the ATC in Kandhkot where the sentence had been announced, because the records of the case were at the SHC.

Journalist Wali Babar, associated with Geo News, was gunned down on the evening of Jan 30, 2011 while he was driving back home near Liaquatabad No. 10. Syed Mohammad Ali Rizvi, Shahrukh alias Mani, Naveed alias Polka, Shakil alias Malik, and other suspects had also been indicted for the murder. Another suspect in the murder case, Liaquat, was killed in a “police encounter” near Seaview beach in May 2012.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2017