KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Tuesday indicted Sindh president of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Haleem Adil Sheikh in a rioting case.

The court read out the charges to which Mr Sheikh pleaded not guilty and opted to contest the case. The court summoned prosecution witnesses and adjourned the hearing till Jan 17.

Mr Sheikh, along with three identified and 150 unidentified party activists, was booked for allegedly holding a violent protest on the M-9 motorway in March 2023 in protest over a police siege of PTI chairman Imran Khan’s Lahore residence.

The case was registered at the Sachal police station under Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with a deadly weapon), 149 (every member of an unlawful assembly guilty of an offense committed on prosecution of a common object), 427 (mischief causing damage), and 186 (obstructing a public servant in the discharge of public functions) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

Earlier, Mr Sheikh, along with former PTI leader Ali Zaidi, was indicted by the judicial magistrate (South) in a case of attempting to free detained PTI leader Hassan Niazi during his court appearance on March 29, 2023.

Five remanded in JI worker murder case

A judicial magistrate remanded five suspects in physical custody in a case pertaining to the killing of a Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) worker in Orangi Town.

The investigating officer (IO) of the case produced the suspects —Zafar Akram, Shaikh Majiid, Ahad Raza, Muhammad Waseem and Muhammad Shahzeb — before Judicial Magistrate (West) Ali Imran Shah on Tuesday.

The magistrate remanded all the suspects to physical custody for three days and directed the IO to submit a progress report along with the suspects on the next hearing scheduled for Jan 12.

During the hearing, the IO submitted an application before the court to record the statements of the prosecution witnesses under Section 164 CrPC. The court rejected the request because the IO failed to satisfy the court and also both witnesses had already recorded their statements under Section 161 CrPC, supporting the version of the FIR.

Wasim Siddiqui (JI worker) was gunned down by armed assailants near Jamaatul Mursaleen Masjid, Orangi Town on Jan 2.

According to police, they have managed to arrest, using technical and human intelligence, three “hired assassins” and two others who gave the contract (supari) of killing.

The police identified the victim’s relatives as Waseem and Shahzeb.

They had given Rs300,000 to Zafar, Majid and Ahad for killing the JI worker over some personal enmity, the spokesperson said in a statement.

Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2024