KARACHI, Dec 7: An Anti-Terrorism Appellate bench of High Court of Sindh (SHC), comprising Justice Wahid Bux Brohi and Justice Rahmat Hussain Jafferi on Tuesday allowed an appeal in an extortion case and remanded the case for retrial.

Mohammad Ashraf and Iftekhar, who were sentenced by ATC-V, filed the appeals through their counsel M.R.Syed. The trial court ordered them to serve a term of five years, fined them for Rs50,000 each and in case of default they were asked to serve RI for another six months.

According to prosecution, the accused belong to banned outfit Khudam-ul-Islam and they were arrested while collecting funds for the organization on Nov 23, 2003, outside Aqsa Masjid.

The SHC held that it was beyond jurisdiction of trial court to award such sentence. The bench set aside the conviction and sentence and remanded the case back for re-hearing and passing of appropriate order in accordance with the law. -APP