KARACHI: Sindh High Court on Monday gave an attorney to convict Saad Aziz alias Tin Tin to engage a counsel for pleading his appeal against 20-year sentence awarded to him by an antiterrorism court for making an attempt on the life of an American educationist, Debra Lobo.

Aziz was also awarded death sentence by a military court in Safoora carnage case.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice Muhammad Karim Khan Agha took up the appeal of Saad Aziz, who was also present in the court.

To the court’s query, the appellant submitted that he could not financially afford to engage a lawyer and requested that a lawyer’s services at state’s expenses be provided to him. The court was informed that Advocate Moula Bukhsh Bhutto would plead Saad’s appeal.

The bench adjourned the hearing till Sept 23 and allowed Advocate Bhutto to go through the case file and prepare himself to argue on the matter on the next date.

Saad was found guilty of shooting at and wounding Ms Lobo, the then vice principal of Karachi’s Jinnah Medical and Dental College, on Shaheed-i-Millat Road, in April 2015.

The ATC-XI judge, who conducted the trial in the judicial complex inside the central prison, had handed down a 10-year imprisonment to him for attempted murder under Section 324 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

He was also handed down another 10-year imprisonment for committing an “act of terror” punishable under Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997. According to the prosecution, the veteran educationist was on her way to her residence in the Defence Housing Authority in a car when the attack took place at around 3pm.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2021