KARACHI: An antiterrorism court exonerated on Tuesday three local leaders of the Pakistan Peoples Party in a case pertaining to shooting and wounding their political rival, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf member of Sindh Assembly Ramzan Ghanchi in 2019.

Suleman Soomro, the then president of the Timber Market Association, along with his sons — Ali Nawaz and Shah Nawaz — were acquitted of the charges of shooting Mr Ghanchi and wounding him over a dispute about laying a water pipeline on Jan 25, 2019 within the jurisdiction of the Napier Road police station.

Ali Soomro was said to be the then vice-chairman of the union council at the time the incident took place.

On Tuesday, the matter came up before the ATC-XII judge.

The accused persons appeared before the court on bail.

The judge noted that the prosecution had miserably failed to prove the charges against the accused beyond a shadow of a doubt, thus exonerated them due to a lack of evidence.

The judge cancelled their bail and discharged their sureties.

According to the prosecution, PTI legislator Ramzan Ghanchi had quarrelled with his rival PPP leaders over a dispute about laying of a water line in the Timber Market area.

The state prosecutor said that initially the police had claimed that Ali Soomro was identified as the main suspect in the incident since he had opened fire on the PTI legislator with a 9mm pistol, adding that later he had fled to the interior parts of the province to avoid arrest.

He further claimed that the investigators had collected two spent bullet casings and one live bullet from the site of the incident.

Initially, police had claimed that the PTI legislator wanted to lay a water line from the main water conduit but the opponents barred Ghanchi from doing so as he did not have permission from the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB).

However, in his statement Mr Ghanchi claimed that the accused persons were illegally laying a water line and he had gone to the site to stop them.

Following the incident, the PTI lawmaker had sustained a bullet wound in his leg and was taken to the Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital for treatment.

On the other hand, defence counsel Abid Zaman denied the allegations and claimed innocence on the part of his clients.

He asked the court to acquit them of the alleged false and fabricated charges, arguing that there was no sufficient evidence to connect his clients with the commissioning of the alleged offence.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2021