KARACHI: An antiterrorism court on Monday deferred recording of statements of three prosecution witnesses (PWs) in the Ali Raza Abidi murder case after the investigating officer failed to produce case properties.

Former Muttahida Qaumi Movement lawmaker Abidi was assassinated by armed motorcyclists near his residence in Defence Housing Authority on Dec 25, 2018.

Four accused — Mohammad Farooq, Abdul Haseeb, Mohammad Ghazali and Abu Bakar — have been charged with facilitating four alleged absconding accomplices — Bilal, Hasnain, Faizan and Ghulam Mustafa — in the murder.

On Monday, the matter came up before the ATC-VI judge, who is conducting the trial in the judicial complex inside the central prison, for recording statements of three prosecution witnesses.

The court grants IO more time to produce case properties

Three detained accused were produced from prison while the fourth one, Abdul Haseeb, appeared in court on bail.

The IO also produced three witnesses — Sub-Inspector Sanwal Khan, Inspector Chaudhry Amanat Ali and medico-legal officer Dr Shahzad — for recording their statements. However, he failed to bring the case properties and later moved an application seeking more time to do the same.

Allowing his request, the judge told the IO to produce the witnesses along with case properties on the next date and fixed the matter for Feb 1.

In March last year, the Counte­r-Terrorism Depart­ment had charge-sheeted four detained suspects for their involvement in the case and stated that they were affiliated with criminal gangs operating in Lyari.

The IO had shown Bilal, Hasnain, Faizan and Ghulam Mustafa as absconders and placed 12 prosecution witnesses in the charge sheet.

The investigation report further stated that the arrested accused tried to set a motorcycle, used in the crime, on fire in a Lyari locality. The accused were hitmen as one of them disclosed that an unidentified man paid them Rs800,000 for killing the former MNA, the report said.

It further said that the accused ‘confessed’ to their involvement before the police in the presence of the complainant of the case. However, the report was silent whether the suspects were produced before a magistrate for proper confessional statements when they were ‘willing’ to confess.

Initially, a case was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 on the complaint of the victim’s father, Akhlaq Abidi, at the Gizri police station. Later, Section 21-I (aid and abetment) of the ATA was also incorporated in the FIR.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2020