KARACHI, Feb 2: A Sindh High Court division bench on Thursday reserved its judgment in appeals moved by Dr Akmal Waheed and Dr Arshad Waheed against their conviction by an anti-terrorist court for aiding and abetting terrorism.
Appearing for the appellants, Advocate M. Ilyas Khan said there was no evidence to link the appellants with the commission of any offence. If they provided medical treatment to Jundullah activists as alleged, it was their duty as doctors. He said they had been implicated on mere suspicion.
The appellants, the counsel said, were offered visas by the US consulate-general in Karachi and were involved on the charge of harbouring terrorists when they declined to visit the US. They were first taken into preventive custody and were not allowed to come out of prison even after grant of bail. Subsequently, they were acquitted as co-accused in two terrorism cases before conviction in a third case.
Contesting the appeals, special prosecutor Iqtidar Ali Hashmi and public Maula Bakhsh Bhatti submitted that there was sufficient evidence to link the accused with the offence and to sustain their conviction. There were handwritten statements of the two brothers admitting that they provided not only medical treatment, but also safe haven and financial assistance to known members of terrorist outfits like Jundullah. Ataur Rehman and S A Bajwa, Jundullah activists involved in an ambush on the Karachi corps commander, said in their confessional statements that they had frequent meetings and close links with the doctor brothers. Video tapes of their activities were also brought on record, the prosecutors said.
A division bench, comprising Justices Mohammad Afzal Soomro and Rehmat Hussain Jafri, reserved its judgment after hearing the two sides from day to day.
COP’S PLEA ADMITTED: A division bench comprising Chief Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed and Justice Sain Ali Dino Metlo admitted to regular hearing a petition moved by police inspector Mirza Ahad Beg through Advocate Shaukat Hayat. He said he appeared in the test conducted for selecting policemen for deployment in Kosovo and other places abroad with the UN peacekeepers. A number of his colleagues who were placed below him in the merit list were selected while he was dropped out of the final list. The bench issued notices to the respondents for Feb 16.
The bench asked Advocate-General Anwar Mansoor Khan to produce the affidavit of the home department official who conveyed the Punjab police request for arrest of businessman Zahid Hussain to the jail authorities.
The trader has moved a petition through Advocates Rana M. Shamim and Dilawar Hussain alleging that when the high court ordered his release on bail, the Central Prison staff handed him over to the Punjab police instead of freeing him. The petitioner’s counsel said once the trader’s custody was given up by the jail, he could not have been handed to the Punjab police.