KARACHI, Nov 7: A district and sessions judge on Friday deferred till Nov 13 his judgment on acquittal applications filed by two accused in the Justice Nizam murder case.

Justice Nizam Ahmed of the Sindh High Court and his son Nadeem Ahmed, a lawyer, were shot dead outside their residence in PECHS area on June 10, 1996.

Akhtar Javed Pirzada, Bilal Shaikh and Babar Sindhu were charged with double murder.

Earlier, Bilal Shaikh and Babar Sindhu, through their counsel had moved applications under Section 249-A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) in the court of district and sessions judge (central) arguing that the prosecution had failed to produce any solid evidence against the accused during the last 12 years and pleaded for their acquittal.

The special public prosecutor, Naimat Ali Randhawa, did not oppose the applications.

Earlier, the court had reserved the judgment for Nov 7.

On Friday, the order was deferred since the confessional statements of both the accused recorded by a judicial magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC were not available to the court and the judge directed the court of the judicial magistrate concerned to provide copies of the confessional statements.

The complainant, Group Captain (retd) Sikandar, the brother-in-law of Justice Nizam, had lodged an FIR at the Ferozabad police station under Section 302/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The killings were attributed to a dispute over a prized plot near the Awami Markaz.

Justice Nizam Ahmed had opposed the plot’s commercialisation and its illegal allotment.

The Sindh High Court has already acquitted Asif Ali Zardari in the case.

Kamran Tessori