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KARACHI, Sept 25: A division bench of High Court of Sindh allowed on Wednesday two appeals setting aside death sentence awarded to the appellants in a bus bomb blast case.
The bench comprised Justice Wahid Bux Brohi and Justice S. Ali Aslam Jafri.
The convicts/appellants, Wasim and Akram, filed their appeals against their conviction and death sentence awarded by the Suppression of Terrorist Activities Court (STA) in 1998. The accused were booked and tried under sections 302/324/427/334/336/34 of PPC read with sections 3/4 of the Explosives Act and section 7 (A) of the Anti-terrorism Act.
According to the prosecution, a bomb went off in a bus at a bus stop in Sakrand on 7-4-1998 at 11:45am. Five persons, Fayyaz Shah, Wazir Chandio, Aijaz Ali, Moharram Ali and Amir Bakhsh, were killed and several others injured in the bomb explosion. The appellants were arrested on 18-4-1998 on the basis of spy information received by the SHO Sakrand.
When the appeals came up for hearing, M. Ilyas Khan and Mehmood Alam Rizvi, counsel for the accused, submitted that police had failed to establish that the appellants/accused were connected with the incident. The accused were known to the prosecution witnesses before the incident and they harboured enmity against them.
Assistant Advocate General Sindh Habib Ahmed opposed the appeals.
After hearing the state counsel and the counsel for the convicts/appellants, the court in its judgment said “No direct or specific evidence to substantiate the charge against the appellants is available. The AAG opposed the appeals but could not controvert the contentions in material aspect. The appeals are allowed, conviction and sentence to the appellants set aside.”
ADJOURNED: An Accountability Appellate Bench of the High Court of Sindh put off on Wednesday the hearing of a bail application filed by a former Chief of the Naval Staff, Mansoorul Haq, accused in an accountability reference, to Oct 1.
The bench consisted of Justice Mohammed Roshan Essani and Justice Mohammed Mujeebullah Siddiqui.
The adjournment came as Deputy Prosecutor-General NAB (RAB) was busy before another court.
The reference pertains to alleged corruption in the purchase of three vessels for the Karachi Port Trust.
The same bench also put off to Oct 1 the hearing of the bail applications moved by two accused, Sadiq Ali and Sham Lal Lasi, proprietor and employee, respectively, of Decent Electric Works, Karachi, accused in a reference pertaining to the Korangi Fish Harbour Authority (KFHA).
According to the prosecution, a three-km long cable allegedly stolen from the KESC was used by the contracting firm to provide an additional load of 30mw to the KFHA.
A former GM of the KESC, Akhtar Hussain Ansari, former chief engineer KESC Abdul Rahim Soomro and Ashfaq Ahmed Baloch are the co-accused in the case that caused a loss of millions of rupees to the KESC.
The hearing was put off as DPG was busy before another bench of the SHC.—APP
