KARACHI: The Opposition Leader in Sindh Assembly, Haleem Adil Sheikh, was released from prison on Thursday after a court granted him bail in a second case pertaining to alleged land grabbing.
Mr Sheikh, who is also a leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, along with 10 others has been booked and detained for allegedly encroaching upon 25 acres of land in Karachi’s Scheme-33.
On Aug 29, the Anti-Encroachment Force re-arrested him in the present case soon after his release from the prison in a terrorism case.
On Thursday, Special Court Public Property (Removal of Encroachment) Judge Khalique Hussain Larik pronounced his judgement reserved on an application seeking grant of post-arrest bail to the PTI leader.
The judge granted him post-arrest bail in the case subject to furnishing a surety of Rs100,000. He also directed the Karachi central prison chief to release the interned opposition leader forthwith, if his custody was not required in any other case.
Earlier, Judicial Magistrate (Malir) Furqan Karim had turned down the AEF investigating officer’s request for the physical custody of the PTI leader for interrogation and remanded him to prison.
According to the prosecution, the PTI leader and 10 others were booked on the complaint of Mukhtiarkar for allegedly illegally occupying 25 acres of land in a cooperative housing society in Scheme-33, where they had set up a cattle pen and warehouses.
It further stated that the complainant had issued notices to them under the Sindh Public Property (Removal of Encroachment) Act, 2010 asking to vacate the land in question, but they failed to comply with.
A case under Section 8(1) of the Sindh Public Property (Removal of Encroachment) Act, 2010 was registered at the Anti-Encroachment police station-East on the complaint of the Mukhtiarkar Zulfiqar Ali Mangi on Aug 29.
Mr Sheikh is facing trial in two land grab cases and a terrorism case pending before the Special Court Public Property (Removal of Encroachment) and Anti-Terrorism Court-XV.
Rapist convicted
A local court on Thursday awarded three years imprisonment to a convict for sodomising a mentally-challenged teenage boy and sharing its video on social media.
Mujahid Hussain was found guilty of subjecting a 15-year-old boy to an ‘unnatural offence’ within the jurisdiction of the Sharea Faisal police station in January last year.
Judicial Magistrate (East) Niaz Hussain Kandhro also ordered the convict to pay a Rs20,000 fine or undergo 15-day additional imprisonment on default.
According to the prosecution, the complainant said that on Jan 18, 2021 one of his sons informed him that a video, showing accused Mujahid forcibly sexually assaulting his youngest son, who was ‘mentally weak’, had been circulating on social media platforms, including WhatsApp.
The magistrate noted in his order that the prosecution examined seven witnesses, including the complainant, father of the victim.
The complainant deposed that he himself saw torture marks on the body of his son, who was so traumatised by the incident that he remained silent for some time. The accused Mujahid had subjected his son to sodomy and the incident was filmed and later shared on social media, the father deposed.
The magistrate noted that the footage of the incident shared online fully substantiated the complainant’s claim that the offence had been committed by the accused despite the fact that there was no enmity between the parties, which ruled out mala fide intentions, if any, in registration of an FIR against the accused.
The magistrate added that the accused failed to place on record single evidence or witness to prove his innocence, “thus, in the absence of any proof, the defence plea appears to be not convincing”.
He observed that evidence of all witnesses was unanimous on each and every aspect of the case and these witnesses had no cause to falsely implicate the accused. Besides, they stood to the acid test of lengthy cross-examination and no minor or major contradiction had been noticed in their evidence on the material points.
The magistrate said he didn’t see any flaw in the statements of these witnesses, which could adversely reflect on their “evidentiary value”.
State prosecutor Abdul Hafeez Maitlo contended that the accused was involved in the commission of the offence as he can be clearly seen in the viral video of the incident. He pleaded to convict him according to the law.
On the other hand, defence counsel Kaleem Ullah Panhwar argued that his client was innocent who had falsely been implicated in the case. He pleaded to exonerate him from all charges.
A case was registered under Section 377 (unnatural offences) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code at the complaint of the victim’s father.
Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2022