KARACHI: The wife of slain anchorperson Mureed Abbas has sought the transfer of a case pertaining to the murder of her husband to another trial court citing reservations over the conduct of the judge of the incumbent trial court.

Police had detained and booked Atif Zaman and his brother Adil Zaman for allegedly killing his two business partners Mureed Abbas and Khizar Hayat over shady investments worth billions of rupees.

The double murder was allegedly committed in a Khayaban-i-Bukhari locality of DHA on the night of July 9, 2019.

The applicant Zara Abbas, wife of Mureed Abbas, moved an application before the district and sessions judge (South) through her counsel Jibran Nasir.

The counsel stated that several discrepancies were found in the process under which the co-accused Adil Zaman was granted bail in the present case.

Adil was granted bail by the additional district and sessions’ judge-IV (South) in two cases against him pertaining to abetting the murder and misusing a licensed weapon.

In her plea, Ms Abbas requested the district judge to transfer the case from the incumbent trial court to the court of the additional sessions judge-X.

The judge fixed the application for July 7 to hear arguments from the state prosecutor and the defence counsel.

According to the charge sheet, Atif called Abbas and Hayat, who were his business partners, to different places in DHA on the pretext of returning some of the amount he owed them. He first allegedly shot Hayat at a traffic signal and later went to kill Abbas in an office. Closed-circuit television camera footage shows Adil accompanying Atif during the killing spree.

Remand in theft of petrol case

A judicial magistrate on Thursday remanded two suspects in judicial custody in a case pertaining to alleged theft of ‘thousands of litres’ of petrol from the Karachi port.

Police detained and booked Azizullah and Ilyas for allegedly transporting the petrol stolen from the port within the remit of the Jackson police station.

On Thursday, the investigating officer produced them before the judicial magistrate (West) to seek their physical remand for interrogation and investigation.

He mentioned that two petrol trucks were stopped at the port’s Gate 2 and it was found that 20,000 litres of petrol was being allegedly stolen from the port.

He further mentioned that the suspects failed to produce any document proving that the petrol was purchased, adding that reports were received about the theft of petrol from the port on a large scale by a group.

The IO sought physical remand of the suspects in police custody for interrogation, saying that their absconding accomplices were yet to be arrested.

However, the magistrate remanded them in judicial custody for two weeks with the direction to the IO to produce them on the next date along with an investigation report.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2020