KARACHI: A district and sessions court has directed a judicial magistrate to record his testimony through a video link in some cases against alleged Lyari kingpin and head of banned Peoples Amn Committee Uzair Baloch being tried by an antiterrorism court.

The judicial magistrate (central) is a key prosecution witness as he had recorded the confessional statement of Uzair Baloch under Section 164 of the criminal procedure code in April 2016.

The Lyari gangster had reportedly made startling disclosures in his statement before the magistrate about a purported nexus between the outlawed PAC, provincial leadership of the Pakistan Peoples Party and top police officials in land grabbing, extortion, gunrunning and various other criminal activities.

The ATC-XVI judge said in a correspondence to the district and sessions judge (central) that the perusal of record of the cases transpired that Judicial Magistrate Syed Imran Imam Zaidi had appeared before the court a number of times to record his statement but without the memo of the confessional statement and thus his statement could not be recorded.

However, the ATC judge further said that on the directive of the trial court, the SSP had submitted the memo of the confessional statement on June 10, but the magistrate did not turn up on July 3 to testify despite being on notice through the office of the district and sessions court.

The ATC requested the district and session court (central) to direct the judicial magistrate to appear before the trial court to record his statement.

District and Sessions Judge Javed Ahmed Keerio issued an order on Friday stating, “Evidence of civil judge/magistrate be recorded through video link, Zoom, Whatsapp or Skype etc.”

The ATC-XVI is trying Uzair Baloch and others in three cases including murder, possessing explosives and illegal weapons.

Uzair Baloch, who is facing multiple cases including the murder of his arch-rival Arshad Pappu, was detained under 90-day preventive detention by Rangers and then handed over to police following his mysterious arrest in January 2016.

Before his arrest, Uzair, once known for his loyalty to the PPP and close contacts with its certain leaders, was declared a proclaimed offender in over 40 cases pending before ATCs.

He has so far been acquitted in over 10 cases. However, a military court had sentenced him to 12-year imprisonment for his involvement in espionage activities and working for foreign intelligence agencies.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2021