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KARACHI, Sept 10: Justice Zafar Ahmed Khan Sherwani of the Sindh High Court acquitted on Wednesday two appellants sentenced to life imprisonment for murder.
Pahari Bibi was alleged to have been murdered by her husband, Zafar Khan, and his father, Shahi Khan, at their residence at Shahi Town, Bin Qasim police station, Karachi, on Sept 13, 2006.
According to Ahmad Khan, complainant father of the deceased Pahari Bibi, the father and the son conspired and colluded to smother his daughter and then hung her body with a ceiling fan to make it look like a case of suicide. The medico-legal officer of the Jinnah Post-Graduate Medical Centre who examined the autopsy report also expressed the opinion that the injury on her neck was ‘more likely to be homicidal’.
The police registered and prosecuted the murder case in the court of an additional district and sessions judge of Malir. The trial courts convicted both the accused and sentenced them to life imprisonment and pay a fine of Rs 50,000 each to complainant Ahmed Khan, legal heir of the deceased. The conviction and sentences were challenged in the high court.
Advocate Habib Ahmed argued on behalf of the appellants that the accused themselves informed the complainant and the police of Pahari Bibi’s death. Her husband had no objection to the post mortem examination. Four days after her death the complainant lodged a case against the accused. They challenged the lady doctor’s finding on the likely cause of death and a medical board headed by the principal of the Dow Medical College and comprised of senior forensic and radiology experts overruled her opinion and confirmed suicide as the cause of death. The complainant was unable to explain the delay in the lodging of the FIR.
NAB withdraws appeal
The National Accountability Bureau, meanwhile, withdrew its appeal against the acquittal of retired lieutenant-general Sabih Qamaruzzaman, former Pakistan Steel chairman, by an accountability court. He and two others were alleged to have manipulated the purchase of a converter for the steel mill from an importer of their choice, thereby causing a loss of Rs175 million to the public exchequer. The trial accountability court, however, acquitted the accused for lack of evidence. The bureau moved an appeal, which was withdrawn on Wednesday.
Karsaz tribunal
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali and Justice Salman Ansari, meanwhile, disposed of a petition moved by PPP leader Syed Qaim Ali Shah against the setting up of an inquiry tribunal to probe the bomb explosions that killed and injured hundreds of people welcoming PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto on her return home on October 18, 2007.
Additional Advocate-General Abdul Fatah Malik submitted a copy of the home department notification disbanding the tribunal. Advocate Haider Ali Sundarani, the petitioner counsel, sought withdrawal of the petition as its purpose had been served.
Contempt plea
Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, meanwhile, issued notices in a contempt application moved by the KMC Employees Co-operative Housing Society against demolition of structures raised by its member on Gutter Baghicha land. Advocate Syed Masroor Alvi said the demolition undertaken by the municipal authorities with police assistance violated a restraint order passed by the high court.
