KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has overturned the life imprisonment handed down to an appellant by the trial court in the murder of the vice chairman of a union council in Malir.

The SHC observed that the prosecution rested its case almost exclusively on the evidence of two eyewitnesses, but their presence at the time of incident at crime scene was extremely doubtful and the benefit of doubt being extended to the appellant.

An antiterrorism court had sentenced Syed Mohammad Asif Raees, said to be a worker of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-London (MQM-L), to life term in January for a UC vice chairman, said to be associated with the MQM- Farooq Sattar group, in July 2017 in Malir.

The convict, through his counsel, filed an appeal against the judgement of the trial court and after hearing both sides and examining the record and proceedings of the case, a SHC division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha allowed the appeal and acquitted the appellant.

The judgement said the unexplained delay to record the police statements of the eyewitness after a delay of three months proved fatal for the case of the prosecution.

The bench noted that an identification parade of the appellant before a judicial magistrate by eyewitness could not be safely relied upon on account of lack of appearance prior to such parade especially as the accused had claimed that he was shown to the eyewitnesses at the police station before the parade.

According to the prosecution, Rangers and police had arrested three MQM-L men, including the appellant, in October 2017, in some other cases and they disclosed their involvement in the present case.

The detained accused further disclosed that they were active members of MQM-L and receiving instructions from Kahkashan Baji of party’s coordination committee, it added.

Published in Dawn, December 5th, 2022