KARACHI: An antiterrorism court on Friday reserved its judgement on two applications seeking transfer of a case pertaining to the murder of the managing director of the Karachi Electric Supply Corporation, Shahid Hamid, to a sessions court for trial of two detained accused.

The accused Mohammad Minhaj Qazi, alias Asad, and Mehboob Ghufran, alias Atar, along with their alleged accomplices have been charged with killing the then KESC MD, his driver and a guard in the Defence Housing Authority on July 5, 1997.

On Friday, the ATC-III judge heard arguments on the two applications moved by the defence counsel for Minhaj Qazi seeking removal of the charge of terrorism from the case and its transfer to a sessions court from the ATC for further trial.

The defence counsel, Mushtaq Ahmed, moved an application under Section 227 of the Criminal Procedure Code, contending that initially the charge of terrorism was not mentioned in the FIR of the alleged triple murder case since the anti-terror law was enacted on Aug 20, 1997.

Therefore, Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the ATA, 1997 was not applicable in the present case, the counsel added and asked the judge to remove the same from the case.

Through another application moved under Section 23 of the anti-terror law, Mr Ahmed argued that the ATC had no jurisdiction to try the applicant in the present case since the case did not fall within the ambit of ‘terrorism’ as none of the witnesses in the case in their statements had stated that the alleged incident had caused a sense of terror. Therefore, he asked the court to transfer the case to a sessions court for further trial.

On the other hand, the Rangers prosecutor, Rana Khalid, opposed both the pleas arguing that the case fell within the ambit of Section 7 of the ATA, 1997 and the anti-terror law was applicable in the present case. The prosecutor asked the judge to dismiss the applications for lacking merit.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the ATC-III judge reserved his judgement to be pronounced on the next date.

Investigation report sought

The judge also issued a notice to the investigating officer of the case on an application moved by accused Minhaj Qazi under Section 265-C of the CrPC seeking provision of documentary evidence.

In the plea, the defence counsel submitted that initially the then SHO Mobin Ahmed of the Defence police station had started the investigation into the case. However, later the then Additional IG Crime Branch Ali Gohar Mithani probed the high-profile triple murder case, he added.

The counsel said that AIG Mithani had recorded the statements of the witnesses in the case, including the slain MD’s wife, who was also a complainant in the case.

Advocate Mushtaq Ahmed requested the court to direct the prosecution to provide a copy of the investigation report of AIG Mithani along with statements of witnesses.

The judge issued a notice on the application to the IO for his arguments on the next date and adjourned the hearing.

According to the prosecution, the then SHO of the Gulbahar police station, Mohammad Aslam Khan, better known as Chaudhry Aslam, arrested Saulat Mirza in December 1998 at the Karachi airport. During investigation, Mirza confessed to having killed the former KESC chief and named his accomplices.

The prosecution alleged that the offence was carried out to avenge the removal of MQM supporters from the KESC by the then MD.

An ATC had already sentenced Muttahida Qaumi Movement worker Saulat Ali Khan, better known as Saulat Mirza, to death in 1999 in this case and he was executed in the Machh jail in Balochistan on May 12, 2015.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2019