KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has disposed of a petition of the executive director of the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD) after the Federal Investigation Agency said that it had closed the investigation into the affairs of the provincial health facility to avoid double jeopardy since the National Accountability Bureau was also conducting an inquiry in this matter.

The petitioner contended that the FIA had issued a notice in September last year to the management of the hospital about an inquiry and argued that it had no jurisdiction to inquire into the affairs of the hospital which was under the administrative control of the provincial government.

When the two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro took up the matter for hearing, the inquiry officer of FIA through a report submitted that in response to a letter written by FIA on the directive of SHC, NAB replied that it was also conducting an inquiry against the officials of the NICVD on the allegations of misuse of authority, illegal appointment, illegal release of salaries and corruption.

The bench disposed of the petition in the light of the statement filed by the inquiry officer of FIA.

Death sentence commuted to life in jail

The Sindh High Court has commuted the death penalty of an appellant into life in prison in a murder case.

A sessions/model court had sentenced Jehanzeb Khan to death in June 2019 for killing Malik Saeed Awan in Shahnawaz Bhutto Colony, North Karachi, in February 2013.

The convict through his lawyer challenged the trial court’s order in the high court and after hearing both sides and examining the evidence, the division bench headed by Justice K.K. Agha commuted the death sentence into life term.

The bench in its order observed that the prosecution had proved its case against the appellant as three eyewitnesses and other prosecution witnesses deposed against him and the same was corroborated by the recovery of crime weapon from appellant at the time of his arrest and positive FSL as well as other documentary evidences.

The appellant was named as accused in the FIR along with his two absconding brothers with a specific role while the complainant was also injured in the incident, it added. However, the bench further observed that the prosecution could not be able to prove the motive for killing the deceased and injuring his relative, Rabnawaz Awan, and thus the death sentence was being converted to life imprisonment.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2021