Rangers killing case: Court rejects challenge to its jurisdiction on strength of SC order

Prosecution to present witnesses from Monday.

KARACHI:

All four applications filed by the defence to have the Sarfraz Shah murder trial transferred from an anti-terrorism court to an ordinary one were rejected on Saturday by the presiding officer, Bashir Ahmed Khoso.

The court referred to an order passed by the five-member bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in a suo motu hearing of the matter. The SCP ruled that section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (1997) was attracted in this case. Thus the apex court ordered an ATC to try it and thus ATC I had jurisdiction, the judge ruled.

As a consequence of this order, the court asked the prosecution to produce its witnesses on Monday. The case will now proceed on a day-to-day basis.

Special Public Prosecutor Muhammad Khan Buriro told the media that this was the first victory for the prosecution. This was not an ordinary case, he said. It was a test case that anyone overstepping their authority would be brought to book, he said, vowing to prove their case against all seven men accused of killing the 22-year-old Sarfraz Shah who was shot and left to die on June 6 at Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Park in Clifton by a Rangers mobile squad personnel.

The victim was shifted to a hospital but only after a fatal delay of more than 20 minutes. In video footage aired by television channels, he was seen dragged by an unarmed man later identified as Afsar Khan, the only civilian accused in the case, who handed him over to Pakistan Rangers.

He was seen begging for mercy but was shot twice in the thigh by accused Shahid Zafar, a sepoy of the Pakistan Rangers from his G-3 rifle from a distance of three to four feet. He begged them to take him to a hospital but was left there.

Shah was later called a dacoit and two FIRs were registered against him. But after investigations and sou motu notice by the apex court, it was declared “B class”.

The defence questioned the jurisdiction of the ATC on the grounds that the Rangers were on duty to enforce law and order and that the deceased was a dacoit who was caught red-handed with a TT pistol by a member of the public. They alleged that Shah tried to snatch a gun from the sepoy who fired in self defense and hence terrorism was not involved. They asked the court not to try the case and transfer it to an ordinary court of competent jurisdiction, a sessions court in their view.







Published in The Express Tribune, July 3^rd, 2011.