KARACHI: A sessions court sentenced on Monday a couple to life imprisonment in a triple murder case.

Rehan Khan Niazi and Tazeen alias Jasmine were found guilty of killing the legal adviser to the then Karachi Electric Supply Company Fahim-ul-Karim Advo­cate, his friend Wajid Mughal and Qurrat-ul-Ain alias Ainee, said to be a makeup artist, at the studio of Mughal in Sept 2011 in Defence Housing Authority.

The additional district and sessions judge (South) Hifz-ur-Rehman read out the conviction order after recording evidence of witnesses and concluding arguments from both sides.

The court handed down life imprisonment to both convicts on three counts and also awarded five years’ imprisonment each for the offence of robbery. However, all the sentences would run concurrently.

Senior lawyer Shaukat Hayat, who was appointed as special public prosecutor in the case, said that the prosecution has examined 12 witnesses to establish its case, adding that the accused persons had led the police to recover the articles of the victims.

According to the prosecution, Mughal was running a modelling/advertisement studio in DHA and before the incident he had fired his employee Tazeen alias Jasmine and hired Qurrat-ul-Ain.

Action recommended against officials in Islamia College case

Subsequently, Tazeen along with her male accomplice committed the offence and also killed Mughal’s friend Fahim-ul-Karim as he also was present in the studio at the time of offence, it added.

The prosecution further said that police had arrested Niazi with the help of call data record around a week after the incident and during interrogations he disclosed his involvement in the triple murder at the behest of Tazeen who was also arrested.

The accused persons had led the police party to a shop where they sold the mobile phones of deceased and the shopkeeper Mohammad Asif handed the phones over to police and also recorded his statement before a judicial magistrate and deposed that the accused persons had sold the phones to him.

The ATM cards and other articles of victims were also recovered on the leads provided by the accused persons, it concluded.

A case was lodged under Sections 302 (punishment for premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of Fahim’s brother-in-law at Defence police station.

Later, Section 397 (dacoity or robbery with attempt to cause death or grievous injury) of PPC was also incorporated in the case.

Islamia College case

A local court sent on Monday a case to the Sindh High Court recommending action against secretary education for colleges Pervez Sehar and secretary education for schools Iqbal Durrani for committing contempt of court in the Islamia College building complex case.

The senior civil judge/rent controller (East) Nadeem Zafar Hashmi pronounced the order on a contempt of court application of the Islamic Education Trust, which owns the complex, against the police and education department for not implementing the ejectment order handed down in November.

Earlier, the court had repeatedly directed the officials of education and police to vacate the complex and hand it over to the official assignee. But they remained unable to implement the order.

The Islamia College is among Pakistan’s oldest educational institutions which were nationalised under the martial law regulations in 1972 and since then the Sindh education department has been managing its affairs.

The ground-plus-three-storey Islamia College building complex is situated in Jamshed Quarters and before nationalisation the colleges and schools that exist within the complex were running under the administration of the Islamic Education Trust.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2018