KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Monday restrained police from arresting members of the Thatta-based Shirazi group in cases registered against them for committing a robbery and stealing water for agriculture.

A two-judge bench comprising Justices Ahmed Ali M. Shaikh and Syed Muhammed Farooq Shah gave this direction on a petition of supporters and voters of the Shirazi group, including Ahmed Bux, Ibrahim and Dawood. The petitioners submitted that they were implicated in the case at the behest of political rivals of the group.

They alleged that workers of the rival group illegally occupied 12 acres of agricultural land belonging to Ahmed Bux and also looted his home.

The petitioners said the Thatta and Sujawal police instead of registering a case against the rival group’s workers booked Ahmed Bux in a false case pertaining to the stealing of canal water despite the fact that there had been no water in the canal for the past several years.

The judges restrained the Mirpur Bathoro and Jati Chowk police from taking any coercive action against the booked persons till the next date of hearing.

The bench also issued notices to the SSPs of Thatta and Sujawal, the sub-division officer of the irrigation department and others to file their respective comments on the petition, and put off the hearing to Aug 28.

Petition against Tahirul Qadri

A division bench headed by Justice Syed Hassan Azhar Rizvi put off the hearing of a petition filed against Dr Tahirul Qadri for two weeks.

The petition against the chief of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek was filed by Rana Faizul Hassan, a civil rights campaigner and president of the United Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

The petitioner alleged that Dr Qadri had been trying to create chaos and turmoil in the country since his arrival from abroad.

He said he had given several provocative and controversial statements inciting the people to resort to illegal acts.

The petitioner said the democratic process and life and property of the people were endangered by the violent politics of the PAT chief.

The bench adjourned the hearing for two weeks.

Daniel Pearl case

The Sindh High Court directed the trial court to expeditiously conclude the trial of a defendant in the murder case of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

With this direction, a division bench headed by Chief Justice Maqbool Baqar disposed of an application of Mohammed Hashim who had sought the transfer of the murder case of the reporter from an anti-terrorism court in Hyderabad to Karachi.

Pearl, 38, was abducted in Karachi on Jan 23, 2002 while he was working on a story about Islamist militants. Later, he was decapitated by his captors.

Omer Saeed Sheikh, who masterminded the murder, was sentenced to death, while Salman Saqib Shaikh, Fahad Naseem and Mohammad Adil were sentenced to 25 years in jail in 2002. But the court had shown seven other accused, including Hashim, as absconders. Hashim was arrested on Sept 6, 2005.

The applicant’s counsel, Syed Mehmood Alam Rizvi, submitted before the court that Hashim had been behind bars since his arrest, while the trial court had examined eight prosecution witnesses so far. He said the trial of the accused could not proceed further as the presiding officer of the ATC in Hyderabad, Javed Alam, had been transferred and the newly posted presiding officer of the ATC Abdul Ghafoor Memon had already refused to hear the case when he was the presiding officer of the ATC-II, Karachi.

On Monday, the applicant’s counsel informed the court that the trial was in progress as the depositions of the prosecution witnesses were being recorded.

He asked the court to direct the trial court to expeditiously conclude the trial. The court accepted the request and disposed of the application.

Published in Dawn, August 19th, 2014