Referee judge reserves verdict on 16-year-long case

According to the police, the motive behind the murders was the victims' opposition to Asma's marriage to Farhan


Our Correspondent November 25, 2014

KARACHI:


The Sindh High Court (SHC) has reserved its verdict on the appeals of three convicts on death row against their conviction by an anti-terrorism court for a triple murder in 1998.


Justice Abdul Rasool Memon, who was appointed as a referee judge after the split decision of the two judges of the SHC's anti-terrorism appellate bench in 2009, reserved his judgment after hearing the arguments at length.

An ATC had awarded the death sentence to Asma Nawab, Javed Ahmed Siddiqui and Muhammad Farhan, while Muhammad Waseem was given ten years' imprisonment. The judge had found them guilty of murdering Asma's father Nawab Ahmed, mother Abrar Begum and brother Asif Nawab in the limits of Malir police station on December 30, 1998.

According to the police, the motive behind the murders was the victims' opposition to Asma's marriage to Farhan. The convicts challenged their conviction and sentences in the SHC in 1999, but their appeals were kept pending for one reason or another.

In a rare move, the two members of the SHC's anti-terrorism appellate bench, Justices Ali Sain Dino Maitlo and Dr Rana M Shamim, gave a split verdict. The former acquitted the appellants due to lack of evidence in the prosecution but the latter upheld the conviction and sentences. Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, who was the SHC chief justice at the time, referred the case to Justice Memon on January 30, 2009, to decide it as a referee judge. Nearly six years later, Justice Memon reserved his verdict on Monday, after hearing arguments from the prosecution and defense lawyers at length.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 26th, 2014.

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