KARACHI, Aug 5: The Advocate-General Sindh, Raja Qureshi, said on Monday that “at the appellate stage we have a good case to defend against conviction of Ahmed Omar Shaikh and in favour of enhancement of sentence of his three accomplices” in the Daniel Pearl case.

He said: “Despite attempts to nullify what the prosecution achieved at the trial stage, as a chief law officer of the province, I am back on the opening day of the High Court to prepare for the appeals which are fixed for pre- admission hearing on Aug 13.”

He said being aggrieved and dissatisfied with the judgment pronounced by the ATC judge at Hyderabad in Special Case No 26/02, the state had filed the appeal in the Sindh High Court for enhancement of sentence of Fahad Naseem, Syed Salman Saqib and Shaikh Muhammad Adil, who were convicted and sentenced under section 7 of the Anti-terrorism Act of 1997 to suffer imprisonment for life.

Mr Qureshi claims that “overwhelming incriminating evidence has actually come on record” in respect of the above-mentioned three persons who have been awarded a lesser punishment than what is prescribed by law being normal punishment.

It is the case of the state that the case set up by the prosecution against the four accused was and is based on conspiracy, in furtherance of which separate acts were committed by all the four accused with the common intention as well as the meeting of minds, falling within the concept of criminal conspiracy. “Hence the accused would not in any manner deserve a punishment lesser to what has been awarded to the principal accused, Ahmed Omer Saeed Shaikh,” the advocate-general said.

He contended that “there is evidence which establishes criminal conspiracy, there is evidence to establish murder in furtherance of the said criminal conspiracy obtained through modern devices and is admissible under the provisions of article 164 of the Qanoon-i-Shahadat.”