Benefit of doubt: PPP MNA acquitted in arms case

KARACHI:

An additional district and sessions judge acquitted Pakistan Peoples Party lawmaker, Shahjahan Baloch, in three criminal cases, on Monday as the prosecution failed to prove charges of possessing illicit arms and explosives against him.

The judge, Sohail Jabbar Malik, cleared Baloch of the charges after it found contradictions in the statements of the prosecution's witnesses and gave him the benefit of doubt - a legal right of every suspect. Law enforcers had arrested Baloch, an elected MNA from Karachi's National Assembly constituency-248, during an operation in Lyari on August 27, 2012.

Sub-inspector Khadim Hussain, who was the complainant in the case, testified that he had received information about the presence of 10 gangsters, who were involved in the gang warfare in Lyari, at Street No. 4 near Noorani Masjid, Kalakot.

He recalled that a police party-led by DSP Ali Raza raided the area to arrest the criminals, who opened fire on the law enforcers. The defence lawyer argued that the court had already acquitted Shahjahan Baloch and nine others of the charges of assault on the police and attempt to murder because the prosecution had also failed to produce any witness to the alleged offence.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 23^rd, 2014.