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KARACHI, Jan 18: The State was put on notice for Jan 21 in a acquittal application filed by former senator Asif Ali Zardari in a case of attempted suicide.
Justice Muhammed Afzal Soomro of the Sindh High Court on Friday passed the order when Farooq H. Naek, counsel for Mr Zardari, moved the court under section 561-A, CrPC, seeking quashment of proceedings before Vth Judicial Magistrate, South.
The case pertains to the murder of Justice (retd) Nizam Ahmed and his son Nadeem Ahmed.
The applicant maintained that Inspector Qadir Khan of CIA South lodged an FIR with PS Civil Lines on May 17, 1999, under section 325 of the Qisas and Diyat Ordinance, read with section 309 PPC.
The complainant stated that Mr Zardari was remanded in the CIA police custody on a seven-day remand and was being interrogated when he suddenly broke a glass and inflicted injuries to his body on right and left sides of the neck. A number of police officers present on the spot, including SP Sattar Detho, DSP Imam Bux Taggar, DSP Altaf Qadri, DSP Abul Rasheed Shah, Inspector Bakhtawar, Shahnawaz and Malik Mumtaz overpowered the accused and stopped him from inflicting further wounds.
The accused/applicant was thus booked on charge of committing suicide.
The counsel for the applicant maintained that his client was in the custody of the CIA at the time of the alleged incident. In fact the investigators tortured him and to escape criminal liability, the police concocted the story for victimising the applicant, he maintained.
The counsel submitted that under the circumstances, to prevent the abuse of process of court and to secure ends of justice, the court may quash the proceedings before the trial court.
The bench, after initial hearing, put off the matter till January 21 when an identical petition filed by Asif Ali Zardari would be heard.
HEARING PUT OFF: A division bench of the Sindh High Court on Friday put off hearing till January 30 on a petition filed by Syeda Aale Zehra challenging the three-day detention of her son Qasim Raza who is alleged to be an activist of a banned militant outfit Sipah-i-Muhammad Pakistan by Anti-Terrorism Wing of the police, adds PPI.
The bench comprised Chief Justice Sayyed Saeed Ashhad and Justice Musheer Alam.
The petitioner’s counsel, S. A. Shah, submitted that the police arrested Qasim on November 16, 2001, from his house but did not produce him in any court of law.
The counsel submitted that on Nov 19, 2001, the ATW officials produced the man before the administrative judge of the Anti-Terrorism Court and got his remand.
However, they showed Nov 19, 2001, as his date of arrest. The petitioner alleged that her son was implicated in a false case on the pressure of another banned religious outfit, the Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP).
