KARACHI, Feb 7: A division bench of the Sindh High Court transferred on Thursday 11 cases, pertaining to land-grabbing and car hijacking, from an anti-terrorism court to civil courts having jurisdiction in such matters.

The bench comprised Justice Ghulam Nabi Soomro and Justice Ataur Rahman.

Counsel for an applicant, Mohammed Iqbal Gul, S. Mahmood Rizvi, advocate, had contended that the cases (10) pending before the ATC-III against his client under section 6 (d), regarding land-grabbing, and one case of car hijacking, which were scheduled offences now, by virtue of section 39-B (2) (c), so the cases were liable to be transferred as the above mentioned cases, ie, regarding illegal occupation and car hijacking were not within the schedule of the Anti- terrorism Act.

Mr Rizvi had moved the High Court against the impugned order of the ATC-III in special case No 40/2001. He had pleaded in the ATC that a bare reading of the FIR showed that the offence allegedly was committed 10 years before the registration of the case and at the alleged time of commission of offence the term illegal “Qabza” was neither provided for in the PPC nor the ATA was in force. As such the case of the accused was beyond the jurisdiction of this anti-terrorism court.

It was also his contention that after the promulgation of amending Ordinance XXXIX of 2001 to the ATA of 1997, the offence relating to illegal Qabza had been deleted from the ATA of 1997 and by virtue of Section 39 (B) (2) (e) of the ATA 1997 the case pending before the ATC should be transferred to the court having jurisdiction.

The ATC judge, dismissing the contentions of the accused, and had held that section 39 B (2) (b) of the ATA 1997 was applicable to the circumstances of the present case, not clause (e) of section 39 B (2) of the ATA of 1997.

The complainant in this case was Mohammed Salahuddin, a member of the Architects and Engineering Cooperative Housing Society. His allegation was that land was allotted to members of this society in Blocks 8 & 9 Gulistan-i-Jauhar. But Khalid Zaman Kiyani, with the help of his brother Riffat Zaman Kiyani and companion Iqbal Gul, had allegedly illegally occupied some of the plots.