KARACHI, Nov 26: The district and sessions judge, Central, Syed Pir Ali Shah put off on Friday the hearing of the Justice Nizam murder case against Asif Ali Zardari, spouse of former Premier Benazir Bhutto, on the request of the defence counsel.
Justice Nizam Ahmed of Sindh High Court, and his son Nadim Ahmed, a lawyer, were shot dead in an attack on June 10, 1996, outside their home in PECHS. The complainant Group Captain (Retd) Sikandar, brother-in-law of Justice Nizam Ahmed, lodged an FIR of the said incident in Ferozabad police station.
The killings were attributed to a dispute over a plot adjacent to Awami Markaz as Justice Nizam Ahmed had opposed commercialization and illegal allotment of plot which was stated to be purchased by Javed Akhtar Pirzada as a front man of ex-Senator Asif Ali Zardari, accused in the case.
Asif Zardari, along with three other co-accused Akhtar Javed Pirzada, Bilal Shaikh and Babar Sindhu, is facing charges in the double murder case. According to special public prosecutor Maula Bux Bhatti, the judge put off the hearing till Dec 21 after Mr Zardari's counsel informed the court that his client was unwell. Co-accused Babar Sindhu and Bilal Shaikh were present in the court.
MULTIPLE MURDER CASE: Judge Arshad Noor Khan of the ATC-3 put off the hearing of a murder case of four women and a man after recording the statements of a prosecution witness.
The judge fixed Saturday for the next hearing after special public prosecutor Naimat Ali Randhawa examined PW Mohammad Akram, who had made video of accused after his arrest regarding 'identification' of the place of the incident and confessional statement.
The case pertained to the murder of a woman, her two young daughters and a son, and their neighbour on June 11 in her house in Surjani Town. The four women were also gang-raped by the band of four bandits.
Earlier, on July 15, 1999 the then judge of the ATC, Mohammad Javed Alam, had prosecuted three accused for the murder of Shahnaz, her daughters, Shahnaz and Asifa, her son Maqsood, and their neighbour Momal.
The ATC-5 had sentenced Amjad Khan alias Amjad Lodhi to death and acquitted the third accused Rehan. However, later the Sindh High Court set aside the sentence on the appeals of the convicts.
The trial court had also acquitted accused Amjad and Rehan of the charge of possessing illegal arms. According to prosecution, a revolver and a dagger were recovered from accused Amjad and Rehan, respectively.
