KARACHI, Feb 17: Upholding the acquittal of three activists of the banned Lashkar-i-Jhangvi in a murder case on Friday, the Sindh High Court on Friday also set aside the conviction of the fourth accused, facing death punishment. Attaullah was sentenced to death by an anti-terrorism court in Karachi on Sept 24, 2003, for killing a security guard Nazeer, deputed at the Imambargah Mehfil-i-Zainab in Nazimabad.
Three co-accused Mohammad Ajmal alias Akram Lahori, Mohammed Azam and Malik Tassaduq Hussain were acquitted as prosecution failed to prove charges against them.
According to prosecution, the convict, accompanied by the acquitted accused, after snatching gun from a guard, killed him on April 7, 2002.
The convict filed an appeal against his conviction and the state moved against acquittal of three co-accused from murder charges.
Appellant’s counsel M R Syed sought acquittal of Attaullah, questioning the trustworthiness of testimonies of prosecution witnesses before trial court. Sarfaraz Tanoli, advocate, appeared for Malik Tassaduq, and defended the acquittal of his client and prayed the court to dismiss state appeal as prosecution failed to prove its case.
AAG Habib Ahmed supported the trial court order on the basis of identification of accused by witnesses and prayed the court to dismiss the appeal and set aside the acquittal order of the remaining three accused.
After hearing the arguments from counsel, SHC’s division bench, comprising Justice Mohammad Afzal Soomro and Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaffery, for reasons to be recorded separately, set aside the conviction of Attaullah and ordered his release if not involved in other cases and dismissed the state appeal against acquittal of three co-accused by trial court.
APPEAL ADMITTED: The Sindh High Court on Friday admitted an appeal for hearing filed by a man against his conviction for killing a policeman and injuring other and issued notice to the state.
Ghulam Qadir Patni was prosecuted for killing a police constable Mohammad Jehangir Minhas and injuring other policeman Ansar Mehmood on March 23, 2005, in the limits of Baghdadi police station.
An anti-terrorism court in Karachi had sentenced him to an aggregate 47 years in prison on Jan 31, having found him guilty of the charges.
The prosecution alleged that the accused riding a bike with absconding co-accused shot on policemen when they tried to stop them for a search. The accused snatched official sub-machine gun of Jehangir after killing him and fled.
Appellant’s counsel submitted that the conviction of his client was based on unsatisfactory evidence and it was also contradicted by the other circumstances of the case.
He submitted that the statement of witnesses were not trustworthy and could not relied upon.
SHC’s division bench, comprising Justice Mohammad Afzal Soomro and Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaffery, after preliminary hearing of appeal admitted it for hearing and issued notice to state.
DIRECTIVE TO CDGK: The City District Government was directed to maintain status quo and respect court orders in connection with neonsigns and billboards.
The direction came on Friday during hearing of a constitutional petition filed by 33 advertising companies heard by a division bench of Sindh High Court, comprising Justice Zawwar Hussain Jaffery and Justice Maqbool Baqar.
The bench later adjourned the hearing till March 14, directing the petitioners to submit original documents by Wednesday. The petitioners include Rizwan Butt of Outdoor Advertisers, Mohammed Ali Aziz of Marketing Advertiser and Mashood Merchant of Champion Neon-signs.—PPI/APP